Tl)e Wild Pov( of tf)e at. Lawrence 



River 



By J. H. Durham. 



SINCE the advent of the white man into the valley of the St. Lawrence River 

 the region of the Thousand Islands — " Les Milles Isles" of the Canadian 

 voyageur — has been noted as a resort for wild fowl innumerable; and as a 

 natural consequence it has become a veritable paradise for the sportsman, and 

 also that other accompanying evil, the mere "pot hunter." 



A glance at a map embracing the watershed of the upper St. Lawrence river, 

 that extent of country known to the Algonquin by the name "Cataraqui," 

 signifying, "A land of many lakes," and which includes that cluster of inland 

 island dotted lakes, rivers and creeks lying back of Kingston and Gananoque, on 

 the north, and the lakes and streams of Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties 

 on the south, will convince the most casual observer that nature here dealt her 

 favors to the feathered flock with no niggard hand. The constant succession of 

 rocky ridges, fertile valleys, wide reaches of wooded plateaus, low-lying meadows 

 and marshes, sedgy swamps with here and there a "salt lick," was an ideal 

 range for myriads of wild fowl and herds of four-footed game. 



As a matter of fact, Lake Ontario, including Bay de Quinte, was "Cataraqui" 

 lake; the St. Lawrence river was "Cataraqui" river; and the whole region on 

 both shores, as I have indicated above, was the paradise of the red hunter, 

 whether of fish, flesh or fowl. 



In view, therefore, of all these natural advantages, there is little wonder that 

 the red tribesmen fought furiously for the possession of this "land of many 

 lakes," where everything they most craved was so abundant, in variety so great, 

 and so easy to procure; but so . it was, until the white man came, and drove the 

 red men from their hunting grounds, and then proceeded to destroy the game 

 recklessly and in some localities to. almost completely eradicate every vestige of it. 



To-day, governments, through the medium of laws and special enactments, 

 are trying, with only partial success, to preserve some few remnants of the many 

 species of fish, flesh and fowl which Mother Nature distributed with lavish hand 

 among the ideal haunts in forest, lake and stream ; and which are now almost extinct 



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