FIFTH FALLS, MISTASSINI RIVER, CANADA. MAIN FALL. 

 From a photograph kindly loaned by Eugene McCarthy. 



siemiska before my trip, there was no one 

 to contradict them. I am sorry to say there 

 are some very unreliable men at Lake St. 

 John, who make a practice of living off the 

 sportsman with as little work as possible. 

 They also take pleasure in misleading him 

 at every opportunity. Happily, however, 

 these constitute a small minority, for at no 

 resort in Canada are there so many honest, 

 hard working men as at Lake St. John. 



My head man is perfection. Short in 

 stature, muscular, and quick as a marten, 

 he combines scrupulous cleanliness with an 

 excellent knowledge of canoeing and cook- 

 ing. He has served 13 years between Lake 

 Temiscamingue (the source of the Ottawa 

 river), and Moose Fort, on James bay, 

 canoeing furs in summer and driving dog 

 teams in winter, for the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany. Besides his native tongue, he speaks 

 excellent English and several Indian dia- 

 lects. Having been in my employ several 

 years, I doubt if he could be secured by 

 anyone else, or I should take pleasure in 

 recommending him to the readers of Rec- 

 reation. 



For 6 days after passing the Samoquan 

 the poling is uninterrupted except by rest- 

 ing spells for the men, every half hour. 

 The river pours rapidly, but noiselessly, be- 

 tween high mountains covered with a thick 

 second growth of pine and spruce, this 

 country having been devastated by the 

 great fire of 1873, that worked such havoc 

 through this part of Labrador. Occasion- 

 ally a bowlder cuts its surface, causing a 

 slight ripple, but as a rule it is a strong re- 

 minder of Bayard Taylor's description of 

 the Saguenay: " A river of desolation and 

 death." 



Silently and swiftly it moves, a river of 

 oil, as gentle as an Adirondack pond, to all 

 appearances; but once in your canoe the 

 illusion is dispelled, for the united strength 



of 2 men can hardly force the light craft 

 against it. The centre is of unknown 

 depth; and even near the shore the poles 

 sometimes fail to touch bottom, and the 

 " tump line " is used. The force of the cur- 

 rent is plainly shown by the many abrasions 

 of the bark of trees 20 feet, or more, above 

 the canoe, caused by drifting ice in the 

 spring freshets. 



These far Northern rivers have a rise of 

 10 to 40 feet, caused by the sudden melting 

 of the snow on the adjacent mountains and 

 by the formation of immense ice gorges at 

 the falls. 



In this part of the river we suffered 

 greatly from the mosquitoes, which at- 

 tacked us at every stop; and all agreed 

 they were far worse than any we had en- 

 countered in the mangrove swamps of 

 Florida. 



However, there must be an end to all 

 things, and on the afternoon of the sixth 

 day, after passing the Samoquan, when we 

 entered the " Great Calm," the breeze 

 speedily ridded us of the pests. This so- 

 called " calm " is merely a lake-like expan- 

 sion of the river, resembling the short, 

 dead water below the eighth fall, but many 

 times larger. It is fully 30 miles long and 

 from 2 to 6 miles in width, very shallow, 

 with many bushy islands. I took the lib- 

 erty of naming it Annabel's Lake, in honor 

 of my wife, she being the first white woman 

 to visit it. 



It is well to state here, that, with the ex- 

 ception of a Mr. Cummings, of Lake St. 

 John, who made 2 fur trading trips here, in 

 1884, our party were the first white persons 

 to reach beyond the Samoquan. This lake 

 is surrounded by a comparatively level plain 

 stretching back 2 miles or more from the 

 shores to abrupt cliffs of naked rock that 

 rise to a height of 1,000 feet. 



The rock formation here differs greatly 



29 



