72 ANGLING FOE OUANANICHE 



waters of the lake commence to fall. The subsidence 

 of the water is very rapid, and usually within three 

 or four days of the end of the spring fishing at Ouiat- 

 chouan it is quite good in the rapid waters at the com- 

 mencement of the Grande Decharge, and may be had 

 there under varying conditions until the commence- 

 ment of the close season on the 15th of September. 

 But it is not usually so good there as it is in the riv- 

 ers after about the middle of July, and the best 

 of it is always to be had from about the 15th of 

 June to the 10th or 15th of July, according to the 

 season, though there was average fishing in the Dis- 

 charge in 1894 as early as June 3d, and with Mr. 

 Floyd, of Boston, and Mr. John Wallace, I had good 

 sport around the grande chute in 1893 on the llth and 

 12th of June. Along with Captain E. T. Rose and the 

 Lady Cecilia Rose I enjoyed ouananiche fishing there 

 in 1892 in the month of July, though after the ear- 

 ly part of the month the general run of the fish, as a 

 rule, is smaller. Before describing its fishing at greater 

 length, the Grande Decharge is itself entitled to more 

 generous notice than the mere passing mention of its 

 name. It is reached from Roberval, the present north- 

 ern terminus of the railroad, by a beautiful steamboat 

 trip directly across Lake St. John from west to east, 

 a distance of some twenty-five miles, which is made 

 by the powerful steamer Mistassini in about an hour 

 and a half. It is at the head of this " discharge " that 

 the surplus waters of the great inland sea are poured 

 out into a variety of channels, separated by numerous 

 islands, and, many miles below, after encountering the 

 violent obstacles to their descent that are answerable 



