CANADIAN ENVIEONMENT OF THE OUANANICHE 137 



down the rapids to his death. Here it was, too, that 

 Walter Macfarlane, one of Montreal's merchant 

 princes, lost his life. The " Devil's "Whirlpool " in 

 this river was some years ago the scene of an awful 

 tragedy. A scion of an English ducal family, named 

 Astle}^, persisted, against the advice^of his friends and 

 Indian guides, in essaying to run the whirlpool. As 

 the canoe reached the centre of the dreaded vortex 

 it whirled around and was engulfed. The Indian 

 paddler saw what was coming and jumped, but was 

 barely in the air when a shot from the rifle of one of 

 Astley's friends on shore made him share the fate of 

 the Englishman. Their bodies were recovered about 

 two miles down the river, disfigured beyond recogni- 

 tion. It was in order to reach this stream that, some 

 fifteen years ago, the Duke of Beaufort, the present 

 Duke of Sunderland, poor W. J. Florence, and the late 

 ISTed Sothern paid the captain of an Allan steamer 

 £200 sterling to go out of his way a few miles and 

 drop them in a small boat, whence they got to their 

 destination. For the Romaine Eiver, Mr. C. E. Fitch, 

 president of the American "Watch Company, pays 

 $1000 a year. At the mouth of the Little Esquimaux, 

 which is a far eastern river, it is claimed that 50,000 

 salmon have been taken in nets in a single year. The 

 angling in the Moisie Eiver is owned by Mr. Alex- 

 ander Eraser, of Quebec, who has leased it for some 

 years past to Messrs. Amos Little, E. P. Borden, and 

 friends, of Philadelphia. He pays the federal govern- 

 ment $1000 a year for the privilege of taking salmon 

 in nets at the mouth of the river. "West of the Esqui- 

 maux, and between it and the Natashquan, are the fol- 



