158 "la GEANDE DECHAEGE" of lake ST. JOHN 



Discharge, for the distance of a mile or more before 

 reaching the island of Alma, the water is thickly 

 strewn with islands of various shapes and sizes, all 

 exceedingly picturesque in appearance. Upon one 

 of these is situated the Island House, to which the 

 steamer Mistassini crosses daily fr-om Roberval, the 

 terminus of the railway from Quebec. Roberval is on 

 the opposite side of the lake, some twenty-five miles 

 distant. From the Island House, which is the centre 

 of the Grand Discharge fishing-grounds, the descent 

 of the rapids commences. 



For those who fish within a radius of two or three 

 miles of the lake, the usual course is to descend the 

 Grand Discharge, necessarily portaging around the 

 first chute or falls, and then fighting the ouananiche 

 in the many splendid pools below ; those on the south- 

 erly shore of the pool and next the north side of Alma 

 Island being the property of W. A. Griffiths, Esq., of 

 Quebec, and all the others being free to guests of the 

 hotel. Some of those who have not the time to de- 

 scend to these pools, but return to Eoberval by the 

 same day's steamer that brought them to the Island 

 House, enjoy good sport by trolling for the fresh- 

 water salmon in the channels between the several isl- 

 ands at the head of the Discharge. 



I believe that I can best describe the descent of La 

 Grande Decharge by giving an account of a trip that 

 I made from Lake St. John to Ohicoutimi on the 14th 

 and 15th July, 1893, accompanied by Mr. E. M. Stock- 

 ing, the city passenger agent of the Quebec and Lake 

 St. John Eailway, and of almost all the railway and 

 steamboat companies doing business in Canada. Up 



