74 ANGLING FOR OTJANANICHE 



of the babbling brook, sings to the gentle swaying of 

 the forest-trees, moans in the wandering wind o'er the 

 surface of the lake, and roars in the not far-distant 

 waterfall and in the rapidly approaching storm. She 

 finds a voice in the clatter of the squirrel, in the drum 

 of the partridge, and the bark of the fox. She has an 

 innumerable variety of feathered choristers, and there 

 is music in the splashing of the leaping fish at play, 

 and in the rustled twigs and crashing branches that 

 speak of the flight from the presence of his sovereign, 

 man, of some frighted denizen of the woods." 



Such is the discharge of Lake St. John, and such the 

 scenes experienced upon its shores or from many of the 

 thousand islands with which it is studded. The larg- 

 est of these is Alma Island, and is delta-shaped. It is 

 three miles across where it faces towards the lake, and 

 nine miles long. Between it and Lake St. John are 

 several islands of varying size, and numerous others 

 are scattered in the main channel of the discharge, 

 which is upon its northerly side. This great, wild, 

 island-dotted stream is locally known as the " Grande 

 Decharge," meaning " great discharge," while the name 

 " Petite Decharge " is given to the smaller channel on 

 the south side of Alma. The hundreds of different 

 currents and rapids that dash about and between the 

 various islands of the Decharge give rise to innumer- 

 able pools, sometimes protected by points of the shore 

 line or islands, from which they may be advantage- 

 ously fished, at others expanding into lake-like dimen- 

 sions, as in the case of those between the grande chute 

 and Camp Scott. Even these may, in places, be ad- 

 vantageously fished from the rocks, and especially the 



