THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 45 



its action also, to some extent, the deeply indented shore lines of 

 Rainy lake and Lake of the Woods, which promise to aid in the 

 development of the resources of the country bordering upon them 

 by the facilities they offer to an extended navigation. 



But like every country over which the glaciers moved, the whole 

 north is a land of lakes, and so thoroughly is it threaded by streams 

 running into and out of the labyrinth of lakes that the skilled woods- 

 man with his canoe may steer his way in any course at his v^^ill. 

 Many of the lakes, too, are of rare beauty, with clear blue waters and 

 studded with lovely islands, of which Temagami, Crow, Shebandowan, 

 Greenwater and Baril are fair types. Temagami lake, 600 feet, and 

 Crow lake, 800 feet deep, are among the most picturesque in the 

 world. Of rivers also there is an infinite variety, of all breadths and 

 lengths and colors ; and even in the same stream one may discover 

 every shade of change. For miles together it may be level and 

 placid as a stretch of canal. Then the rocky banks are seen to con- 

 tract, the current becomes a rapid, and presently expands into a 

 lake. Or there are shallows, a maze of channels through islets 

 clothed with spruce or cedar, a terraced fall, a swirl of eddies, a rush 

 of the foam-flecked flood between walls of rock, with the almost 

 constant lakelet or lagoon in a setting of dark woods beyond, where 

 in a margin of grass or reeds. 



The lotus lolls on the water, 



And opens its heart of gold, 

 And over its broad leaf-pavement 



Never a ripple is rolled.* 



And so the rounds of change go on through shifting scenes of quiet 

 and turbulence. Such a river is the Seine, which, flowing out of Lac 

 des Mille Lacs, carries down in its tortuous way to Rainy lake the 

 overflow of a thousand other lakes besides. A canoe trip starting 

 from Savanne on the Canadian Pacific Railway, traversing Lac des 

 Mille Lacs, Baril, Brule, Windigoostigwan, Elbow and Crooked Pine 

 Lakes, and thence down current on the Atik-okan and Seine rivers 

 to Rainy lake, and on, if one is in the mood, across this lake to Fort 

 Frances, down the Rainy river to Hungry Hall, and over Lake of 

 the Woods to Rat Portage, where the Canadian Pacific Railway is 



* From Cleopatra, by W. W. Story. 



