116 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



Lower St. Lawrence. "Well, what sport have you had at 

 the Saguenay ? " 



The evening was balmy and beautiful when we cast our 

 anchor into the deep clear water and found it firmly fixed 

 in the shining sand beneath. A gauze-like atmosphere 

 surrounded the houses of the Hudson's Bay Company's 

 offices, the flagstaff and the cannon which stand in front of 

 them, and the Indian encampment^ and ruins of a Eoman 

 Catholic church close by, which latter is said to have been 

 built by Jesuits, some two hundred years ago, and to have 

 been the first building composed of stone and mortar 

 wldch reared its head upon the continent of North America. 



Having presented oiu' credentials from the Governor of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company's territory to their chief officer 

 at Tadousac, we walked across the tongue of land which 

 separates this lovely bay from the startling and picturesque 

 featm-es of the Saguenay, which cannot be beheld without 

 awakening in the heart sensations of wonder, fear, and 

 reverence. The immense mountains which overhang this 

 fathomless river, whose solemn gloom has only lately Ijeen 

 cheered by the industry or presence of man, are of 

 stupendous and matchless grandeur. The peaks of some 

 of them rise above it, not only upright as a wall, but 

 hanging over to the height of two thousand feet, while 

 their bases sink beneath tlie dark waters — the deepest 

 river in the world — into all but imfathomable depths. 

 Language cannot describe the emotions of wonder and fear 



