CHAPTER V 



En route for French River — Pickerel Landing — The house 

 on the rock — Primitive simphcity — The fate of the skunk — The 

 Ojibwa Indian guide — Reversion to original type — Whisky 

 and deterioration — French River — Recollections of Champlain 

 — Trolling for bass and pike — A master of the knife — A fight 

 with the " tiger of the river " — Gaff versus rifle — The indefatigable 

 guide — The might have been — In camp — The note of the 

 whipoorwill — " The fretful porcupine." 



THE Canadian Pacific Railway has recently been 

 extended to Sudbury, the centre of a large 

 mining industry. It has opened up a hitherto unex- 

 plored area of river and forest. For fishing and 

 shooting it is one of the best districts in the Ontario 

 Province. I travelled to Pickerel Landing which 

 accurately describes the situation. It is nothing 

 more than a landing, with not even a platform 

 attached, to say nothing of a station. For primitive 

 simplicity and the complete negation of all luxuries 

 it can scarcely be surpassed. I scrambled out of the 

 train, encumbered with fishing rods and other im- 

 pedimenta of the chase, and climbed down to the 

 railway track. Below it a magnificent river swept 

 beneath the bridge, and in the midst of the river 



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