XIV A PEELIMINAET OAST 



plation of such a life as Walton's "both soothes and 

 charmSj . . . and we sigh to think that the like of it is 

 possible no longer. . . . Where now," he asks, "would 

 the fugitive from the espials of our tnodern life find a 

 sanctuary which telegraph or telephone had not deflow- 

 ered ?" The reply will be found in those of the follow- 

 ing pages that tell of the Canadian environment of the 

 ouananiche — the vast and all but unknown reaches of 

 the great Labrador peninsula that form the large lake- 

 lands of the North, whose only gateways are the estuaries 

 of mighty rivers, and that know no other means of com- 

 munication with the outer world than the birch -bark 

 canoe of the aboriginal Montagnais and the often un- 

 blazed trail of the roving savage. 



In reeling up his preliminary cast, it only remains to 

 the author to place on record his indebtedness to the 

 many good friends who have in so many ways encour- 

 aged and aided him in the preparation of " The Ouana- 

 niche AKD Its Canadian Environment." 



B. T. D. Chambbbs. 



Quebec, Canada, May, 1896. 



