FIFTH FALLS, MISTASSINI RIVER, CANADA. LITTLE FALL AND OUANANICHE POOL. 

 From a photograph kindly loaned by Eugene McCarthy. 



mouch-o-an), and return by Lac a Jim and 

 the Mistassini — a popular, but to me, an 

 uninteresting trip. 



From the mouth of the Wassiemiska the 

 tenth fall can be plainly seen, with a long, 

 flume-like rapid extending half a mile 

 above it. Down this flume the river 

 rushes with great force and hurls itself over 

 the last drop, of about 20 feet, into a deep, 

 foamy pool, a favorite stopping place for 

 pike, dore and ouananiche. On the right 

 side of the fall, is a narrow channel, 

 broken into short cascades, up which the 

 fish can be seen leaping, on their journey 

 up the river. Strange that every fall — 

 otherwise impassible, has a natural fish- 

 way! On our return we spent some days at 

 this point and tested the fishing thor- 

 oughly. 



After crossing the portage a stretch of 

 calm water is reached that requires some 2 

 hours to pass. Then there is a heavy rapid, 

 scarcely 50 feet wide, with perpendicular 

 cliffs on each side rising to a height of 200 

 feet. No chance for a portage and too deep 

 for the poles. The " tump line " (a 75 foot 

 manilla rope), is uncoiled and each canoe is 

 slowly " warped " up to the crest of the 

 rapid. No more portages after this, until 

 the " Grande Portage " is reached, some 

 days' journey farther North. 



That evening we camped on a narrow 

 sand bar, in the centre of the stream, which 

 is very shallow and wide for some distance 

 above the " Cransserrie," as the narrow 



rapid is termed. The next morning at sun- 

 rise (that being about 3.30 in this high lat- 

 itude), camp was broken and we were soon 

 under way. By noon the largest tributary 

 was reached — the River Samoquan, which 

 is fully as large as the Mistassini and has 

 its source in a large, unknown lake near 

 the watershed between the Ungava river 

 and the St. Lawrence. This river and lake 

 are probably responsible for the erroneous 

 belief, so long current, that the Mistassini 

 river was the outlet of the lake of that 

 name; whereas the Samoquan flows from 

 Northeast to Southwest, and the Mistassini 

 from North to South; while the Lake Mis- 

 tassini lies Northwest from the junction of 

 the 2 streams. The rivers meet in an 

 angry rush of waters, both being rapid and 

 narrowly confined in rocky gorges, where 

 the conflicting currents cause a dangerous 

 whirlpool almost as perilous as the re- 

 nowned one at Isle Maligne, in the Grand 

 Decharge of Lake St. John. 



During the preparation of lunch here, I 

 cast in the Samoquan several times without 

 result. Then, crossing the narrow point to 

 the Mistassini, I took 2 fine ouananiche, on 

 a Jock Scot salmon fly. 



A short digression here will not be 

 amiss. Some of the voyageurs of Lake St. 

 John declare there are no ouananiche above 

 the tenth fall of this river. This is because 

 they do not care to undertake the labor re- 

 quired to pole up the rapids; and as no 

 sportsmen had ever been above the Was- 



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