106 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



for any excursion into these uninhabited places. Game 

 of any sort is scarce in the forests. Lake St. John is 

 one of the most accessible of the eastern regions, and 

 is consequently occasionally visited by the tourist, who 

 will soon be more frequently observed when he can 

 make the journey in a Pullman car. 



I had to get back to Chicoutimi, which is the 'head' 

 of the regular steamboat navigation on the Saguenay 

 from Quebec. The river was too high and violent to be 

 descendable by canoe, though this may be done in July 

 or when the water is at a lower level than it was at 

 that time. The choice lay at present between the 

 queer four-wheel carriages, like a box on two planks, 

 along the most atrocious road imaginable, and a some- 

 what roundabout way by canoe. I chose the latter. 

 This was to ascend the Belle Eiviere, which is by no 

 means a very lovely riviere. It seemed a mere flooded 

 ditch, and cost us more than one day's hard paddling 

 against a turbid current. Along the banks lay scat- 

 tered a fair number of French Canadian farms, all 

 built after the same model, and all the people terribly 

 poor, because at present they have no convenient 

 market. 



Then, after a few portages, we traversed, by canoe, 

 Lake Kenogami, shut in by lofty hills. A lake so 

 long and narrow that, although the length from end 

 to end is thirty miles, the average breadth is less than 

 one mile. A few trout of fair size may be caught 

 here, and I found excellent fishing in what is marked 

 Eiviere de Chicoutimi in the maps, though that is not 



