206 LAKE MISTASSINI 



vey of Canada, in whose proceedings it is pub- 

 lished. The lower part of the Betsiamitz River is 

 from half a mile to a mile across, and both its waters 

 and those of Lake Pipmuakin are well stocked with 

 fish, the principal kinds being lake and river trout, 

 whitefish, pike, and carp, and, below the first fall of 

 the river, salmon and sea trout. There is one very 

 long and bad portage on the way np to the lake, where 

 everything has to be carried over a mountain a thou- 

 sand feet high. Lake Pipmuakin is very irregular in 

 shape, being full of deep bays, and has an area of 

 over one hundred square miles. There are two 

 known routes from it to the waters of the Peri- 

 bonca: the one to the north via the farther ascent 

 of the Betsiamitz, leading direct to Lake Manouan 

 at "the head of the principal branch of the Peri- 

 bonca, by way of Lake Manouanis; the other is by 

 the Pipmuakin River, a feeder of the lake, which is 

 ascended for twelve miles, and is then distant but five 

 miles from a small lake called Otashoao, which dis- 

 charges by a little river two miles long into the 

 Manouan branch of the Peribonca. Thence the as- 

 cent is made to Lake Manouan, noted for its irregular 

 shape and the superior quality of its ouananiche and 

 other fish. From the lake there is a portage and 

 canoe route to the main branch of the Peribonca, 

 half a mile below Lake Onistagan. Here the river is 

 two to three hundred yards in width, and must be 

 ascended through Onistagan and for some miles far- 

 ther, until a western tributary is reached, the ascent of 

 which shortens the portage and canoe route through a 

 number of small lakes and intervening country, lead- 



