214 UP THE ASHUAPMOTJCHOUAN 



and afiforcl any amount of excitement to the ardent 

 and venturesome canoeist. There are some good fish- 

 ing-places in the river, notably at tlie Salmon River 

 Falls, a very pretty chute, extending quite across the 

 river, in the parish of St. Felicien, a few hours' drive 

 only from Roberval. Here, in the latter part of the 

 summer season, the ouananiche may often be found 

 at the foot of the falls, apparently resting to recover 

 their strength before attempting to. surmount the ob- 

 stacles that stand in the way of th^ir ascent to their 

 spawning -beds. I have seen them here when they 

 refused all kinds of flies, but took the phantom min- 

 now greedily. It is more often, perhaps, to reach Lac 

 a Jim and other favorite fishing waters that anglers 

 ascend this difiicult stream than to fish its own pools. 

 A couple of days' time in ascending this river may be 

 saved, and four portages avoided, by driving not only 

 to St. Felicien but as far as the head of Portage a 

 I'Ours, where there is a bad " carry " for a mile and a 

 half. The portage is well named, for, like all of them 

 in this part of the country, bears' tracks are plentiful 

 there ; and Mr. Archibald Stuart, on his way up this 

 river to Lake Mistassini in July, 1894, met two Cana- 

 dian hunters a little higher up the stream, returning 

 to Lake St. John with the skins of thirteen bears 

 which they had killed. The first heavy rapids of the 

 Ashuapmouchouan above the Portage k I'Ours must 

 be poled up. There is no way to portage around 

 them, and the current is too heavy to permit of pad- 

 dling up. Where the rapids are deep, the guides 

 stand up at either end of the canoe, and with long 

 poles, sometimes ten and fifteen feet, and even more, 



