350 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[May 18, 1887i 



IN THE LAURENTIDES. 



ST. ELIE, County St. Maurice, Quebec— The Lauren- 

 tian Mountains, or the Laurentides, are the back- 

 tone of the h'storic Province of Quebec, and are a per- 

 fect paradise for the lover of nature and the sportsman. 

 Perhaps the most beautiful portion of the range, as it is 

 certainly the most accessible, is immediately north of the 

 old town of Three Rivers, distant by rail ninety miles 

 from Montreal. Opposite Three Rivers the St. Lawrence 

 is narrow, deep and swift, and here the dark and turbid 

 waters of the St. Maurice, fostered and reared in the 

 kindlv Laurentides and their crystal lakes, flow into the 

 St. Lawrence and add to its ever continuing march totbe 

 broad and mighty gulf below Quebec, The confluence 

 of the two rivers is marked or divided by the presence of 

 two islands, which form three channels, thus leading the 

 old discoverers of "La Nouville France" to surmise that 

 three rivers entered the St. Lawrence at this point. 



Journeying northward from here— the Peles Railway 

 can be used for about thirty miles of the distance, if de- 

 sired, though many prefer to take a modest buckboard for 

 the whole distance— successive ridges of land are met 

 clothed with scrub pine, the over present poplar, and 

 various deciduous trees; the ridges bear evidence to the 

 claim of a glacial epoch and to a gradual subsidence of 

 the waters of those cold, distant, mysterious days. By 

 gradual ascents, winding road and under clear blue skies 

 and in a bracing pure air, full of health and appetite, at 

 last the rocky nature of the ground, the precipitous cliffs 

 and innumerable lakes show we are in the Laurentides, 

 where nature's heart beats strong among the hills. These 

 are said by geologists to be the oldest land in existence, 

 and the marks of drifting ice are seen at various points; 

 the face of the cliffs is scarred; boulders of many tons 

 weight lie in impossible places, and mounds of drift 

 gravel, showing the action of water, and seashells can be 

 found almost everywhere. It was the first land to appear 

 after the geological deluge. Here the village of St. Flore 

 is reached, not far distant from the exquisite Shawenegan 

 Falls. The Shawenegan Falls are most picturesque and 

 at the same time grand and majestic. A view of them 

 is alone worth far more than the trouble of the trip, and 

 the splashing and surging of the waters is a continual 

 hymn of musical rhythm and a grand lullaby to the com- 

 muner with nature. Musing, the moments fly by unno- 

 ticed, one is absorbed in the majestic stillness and silence 

 of the forests and the music cf the waters. 



While the scenery hi the Laurentides is magnificent, 

 there is yet a certain grandeur and variety that is most 

 striking and beautiful. It is not on the same extensive 

 scale of heights and distances as the Rocky Mountain 

 scenery, and though of a different type, it is charming 

 and exquisite in its own way. The forests are, as is 

 usually the case, of varied character, though large areas 

 are covered with symmetrical spruce, yet large growths 

 of deciduous trees are of sufficient occurrence to vary the 

 monotony, and trout lakes, possessing a soft loveliness 

 all their "own, are met with on every hand, in chains, in 

 groups and in solitary beauty, so that surprises meet the 

 lover of nature in the most charming way. The waters 

 of these lakes are of varied and varying hues; some will 

 be found of that deep brown tinge so common to Canadian 

 forest rivers, others reflect ah emerald green, others a 

 deep blue sapphire shade, glinting with every ray of the 

 sun. All are deep and clear and perfectly alive with 

 speckled trout and lakers; some are the homes of bass 

 and pickerel. Rocky are the shores, and spruce and 

 tamarac people the cliffs like an array of silent sentinels: 

 here and there the darker green of the more massive um- 

 brageous pine is seen, a remnant spared by the ruth "ess 

 lumberman. Across the waters of each large lake echo 

 the cries of the wary loon, changing ceaselessly from a 

 tone of thrilling and piercing sadness almost human in its 

 apparent despair. Paddle your canoe into one of the 

 little bays o'ershadowed, and shallower waters tempt the 

 speckled beauties in here to feed. Cast your fly and 

 you'll have lovely sport, as these waters teem with the 

 Salmo fontinalis, and no angler has yet visited them. 

 What! A big one! Aye, a two-poundef and not by any 

 means rare, and sometimes you deceive a three-pounder 

 with the cruel fly, and there are many more. Paddle, 

 paddle over the crystal waters and say not too proudly 

 that Venice was wedded to the Adriatic, the Laurentian 

 lakes are fond mothers to the canoes, and cany them as 

 gently as ever a fondest mother carried a favorite child. 

 The camp-fire glows brightly and cheerily as the sun sinks 

 in the west— a glorious phantasmagoria of color, the beau- 

 tiful death of day. grand and sad, yet full of hope for the 

 morrow — the shadows creep up as the lingering rays tinge 

 less and less the distant mountain tops and die out, the 

 trees and the waters of the lake look dark and black, and 

 we appreciate the warmth of our camp-fire and its cheeri- 

 ness. Throw on another log and see the golden stars and 

 bright flames chase and jump in gladsome glee. Sleep on 

 couch of odorous sapin after hearty meal of boiled trout 

 and ham, toasted biscuits, tea and a luxurious pipe, and 

 forget the close confinement and narrow walls of the 

 cities. 



This region is fast becoming appreciated. Some years 

 since its only visitors were a few Montreal citizens who 

 had each purchased a lake and erected bunting lodges 

 and passed a couple of the hot months every year with 

 their families away from the dust and smells of the city. 

 Within the past few years, however, several clubs have 

 been formed which have secured fishing properties here, 

 have erected club houses and made most enjoyable re- 

 treats for their members. One of these, the Winchester 

 Club, composed of New York, Boston, and three or four 

 Canadian gentlemen, has a number of lakes, a fine club 

 house, excellently equipped, and keeps up a pretty ex- 

 clusive state o things. The Shawenegan Club is com- 

 posed of about fifty members, they own a large number 

 of lakes, have built an excellent club house, boat house 

 and ladies' house, and are full of enthusiasm and are very 

 hospitable, having a large number of guests during the 

 season. They have m ad e an excellent road to then property 

 so that one can drive to it without the least trouble, and 

 yet be in the heart of the woods and in complete com- 

 munion -with nature. Membership in the Winchester Club 

 costs -$250, and in the Shawenegan $100. Many private 

 gentlemen have erected fishing lodges the past two years 

 and purchased fishing rights. A new club was formed 

 last year, the Laurentian, whieh has probably the largest 

 membership, and has certainly very valuable fishing 

 rights, as the writer knows by* actual experience. The 

 lakes belonging to the Laurentian Club he within an 



area of about 150 square miles* the property being 

 bounded on the east by the river St. Maurice, on the j 

 north by the river Mattaurin, and on the southeast by 

 the Peche lakes. The lakes of the club are divided into 

 four distinct groups, the most accessible being the 

 Peche lakes and tributaries, about thirty in nUmben 

 They are exceedingly well stocked with trout of large size. 

 At the first Peche lake two substantial houses have been 

 built for the accommodation of members of the dub. The 

 third and fourth Peche lakes, otherwise called Lac Clair 

 and Lac du Francais, are pretty little sheets of water and 

 swarm with speckled trout, and these lakes ftre hot niore 

 than five miles from the Peles railway station-. N'o more 

 accessible fishing grounds can be found anywhere. Other 

 lakes belonging to this club are Lac Bouchard and Lac la 

 Truite. This is a lake of considerable size and nearly two 

 miles in diameter, its waters are remarkably bright and 

 clear, and contain numbers of large speckled trout as 

 lively and gamy as any angler could desire. Another 

 group of lakes, named after the central and largest one, 

 whieh is appropriately called Lac Fou, lies some distance 

 to the north of the Pbche group. Lac Fou is about four 

 miles long and of very irregular shape. Its most remark-* 

 able features are the number of deep bays which radiate 

 in all directions from the main channel, and the near ap* 

 proach of the opposite shores at several different points; 

 affording, to a person seeing it for the first time-, a suc- 

 cession of surprises as each new portion* previously un- 

 seen, comes into view. It is worthy of notice on account 

 of the number and sifce of speckled* trout it contains. Of 

 sixteen fish caught successively not one was less than two 

 pounds. The other lakes of this group are about eighteen 

 in number. The Laurentian Club has a group on a stream 

 called the McLaren Creek, of five lakes, in which the 

 trout run from £ to 21bs. in weight. The lakes of the 

 fourth group, seventeen in number, are known as the 

 Lacs des Cinq. Their waters flow into the Matawin 

 River, about five miles above the junction of the latter 

 with the St. Maurice. They are unrivaled with regard to 

 the numbers of speckled trout they contain. The mem- 

 bership fee of the Laurentian Club is $25. 



Camp life in the Laurentides is a most glowing, health- 

 giving and glorious experience. All are up at sunrise, 

 and if you want to see a most beautiful and gorgeous 

 sight, come into these regions of hills and lakes. The 

 vault of heaven grows brighter in hue, brighter and 

 warmer to the eye; the tall trees on distant higher levels 

 are welcoming the golden rays, and soon Old Sol himself, 

 with his gladdening power of life and hope, shines down 

 upon our little camp and bids us welcome to regions 

 hitherto his alone. A dip in the clear waters of the lake, 

 a hearty breakfast, and we are off in our canoes explor- 

 ing the lakes and testing and seeking the best fishing 

 places till near sundown, to return for the hearty meaL 

 In some lakes the markings and color of the trout vary 

 considerably; said to be due to differences in the feeding 

 grounds and bottom. And so the days come and go, till 

 we are forced by other cares and duties to break asunder 

 from this enjoyable existence and return to more practi- 

 cal matters. 



The caribou and moose wander about these regions, 

 affording noble sport to those who love the rifle, and the 

 nut brown partridge and wary, gentle woodcock are 

 numerous enough to test one's skill. A bruin can be met 

 with occasionally; so this Laurentian range may truly be 

 designated as a paradise for sportsmen and the lovers of 

 nature. So make up your mind, gentle reader, to see 

 them the coming season. 



The fishing in these lakes being the exclusive right of 

 the clubs owning them, the trout axe carefully protected 

 during the spawning season, and market-fishing being at 

 all times prohibited, the supply can never be exhausted; 

 so that the members can at all times depend on filling 

 then creels. W. H. P. 



NEW ENGLAND WATERS. 



THE salmon in the Penobscot River at Bangor, Me., 

 still refuse to rise, though the most tempting of 

 flies are being hourly thrown for their amusement. Bos- 

 ton sportsmen are getting a little anxious, and the hint 

 has been thrown by the less hopeful that it is possible 

 that last year was the first year and the last year of that 

 sport there. But it is well to take the conditions into 

 the account, though the salmon are eight or ten days 

 late. In the first place the river is still very high, and 

 the ice went out with a remarkable freshet that threat- 

 ened to take dam and all with it. But the water is row 

 subsiding somewhat, though still surcharged with the 

 results cf melting snow. The remark of a waiting 

 sportsman yesterday is doultless true, "The water is 

 hardly a degree warmer than clea- icewater." Warmer 

 water will doubtless "set the salmon running." 



There are no reports of the Sebago Lakes yet being 

 clear, though the ice has started from the shores in many 

 places. It is safe to assume that there will be no land- 

 locked salmon fishing there this week, at the best. Re- 

 ports of strings of brook trout begin to be heard from 

 different sections of Maine, but there are still reports of 

 snow and ice in the northern and eastern portions. 

 Moosehead Lake is still fast in the ice of winter, though 

 the latest reports speak of the rapid action of the recent 

 warm days on the ice. Still it is not expected that the 

 lake will be clear before the 20th of May. The waters of 

 the Androscoggin Lakes are still ice-bound. I saw Mr. 

 J. B. Straw, superintendent of the Union Waterpower 

 Co., which controls the flowage of these lakes, yes ( erday, 

 and it is his hope that Richardson Lake and Mooselucma- 

 guntic will be clear by the 20th — 10 to 15 days later than 

 last year. Mr. Straw has had many years of experience 

 at the Upper Dam, and his opinion is worth remember- 

 ing. His is backed up in his notion by several of the 

 older dwellers On these lakes — Capt. Fred C. Barker and 

 Capt. Hewey. Boston sportsmen are getting impatient 

 for these lakes to clear. 



Mr. C. P. Stevens, the projector of the Vive Vale camp, 

 built at the Narrows, Richardson Lake, this spring, of 

 which the Forest and Stream has already load an account, 

 was on the grounds where his camp now stands, with rod 

 in hand, last year by May 1. This year he and his part- 

 ners in the camp do not expect to get started before the 

 18th to the 20th. Mr. Mark Hollings worth, the artist, who 

 goes to the Upper Dam every year, will not. start this year 

 till well into June. Artist Griggs, who has usually accom- 

 panied him, will go to the Adirondacks this year. Dr. 

 Haddock, of Beverly, Mass., is waiting for the ice to get 

 out of the Androscoggin lakes. His tackle is ready. He 



Caught an 8-pound trout last year; But the fun of the 

 case was that his brother sportsmen were guilty of a 

 wicked pun that any schoolboy might have made. They 

 said that "the haddock must have been weighed instead 

 Of the trout.'' J. Parker Whitney, the owner of the splen- 

 did camp at Mosquito Brook, Lake Moleckunkamunk, is 

 about to sail for Europe, so that bis jolly face, on board 

 his steam launch, will .be missed On that IHkfc' wife first 8f 

 the season-, at. least;. He nas been a regular visitor there 

 fflr hearty thirty years-. Mr. Sam Betton, another resi- 

 dent Or .'camper on the lake for nearly thirty years, is to 

 be in Philadelphia the first of the season. The Turtle 

 party, who make up a jolly visit to that splendidly 

 equipped camp. Lake Point Cottage, Rangeley Lake, is 

 about ready to start. The most of the company will leave 

 Boston on Saturday next. 



Most of the hotels in the lake regions expect a full run 

 of guests this season, but there is one growing feature 

 they will have to take into account. A good many of 

 the old guides in Maine have s within a cOUpie of yearsi 

 become camp keepers-. They have built camps and fur- 

 nished them. One of thein I hate in mind; lias written 

 letters to about every sportsman he has ever guided tiifj 

 past winter j telling them Of the inter its Of his hew camp; 

 and boasting among other things spring mattresses; and 

 off ering to take good bare of all who may visit him. The 

 wOi-st f feature for the old time hotels is that these guides 

 offer entertainment, including guide, boat and board of 

 both fisherman and guide, for about |4.50 per day, 

 whereas the old price at the regular hotels, including 

 guide, amounted to about $7 per day. Jock Darling, of 

 defying warden fame at Nickatons Lake, has written 

 some of these letters to his former patrons. One of 'such 

 letters I saw the other day. The gentleman who received 

 it admitted the killing of a deer in the water and acknowl- 

 edged "that they don't mind the game laws down there." 

 He says that a couple of deerhoUuds were furnished, he 

 knew not from whence, and the deer was run mtp the 

 water. Mr. Darling's letter to this gentleman i while it 

 does not propose openly the same sort of sport this year, 

 says that "game will be very plenty" and invites Mr, — = 

 to "come down at any time and we will take good carB 

 Of you,'' But Mr. Jock Darling has reckoned without 

 his host this time, or rather without his guest, for the 

 gentleman declares that he has had ali of such sport that 

 lie wants, and that he never again will be guilty of BO 

 cruel a butchery as to kill a deer in the water, driven 

 there by dogs. Special, 



The Flounder.— A reporter of the New York evening 

 Sun has been interviewing several persons on the subject 

 of flounder fishing. Among' others the poet Geogheg'ah 

 was interviewed and the following is given as the result: 

 "The poet has thrown his brOwn-hackle and red-ibis upon 

 the surface of complaining brooks in Delaware county; 

 he has lured the long-nosed pickerel from shady pools in 

 the Neversink; he has yanked the juicy bluefish from his 

 environment of blue water; but the catching of all these 

 require action, and the poet is not active. He is dreamy, 

 contemplative, introspective. His favorite haunt is Go- 

 wanus Bay. Here he hies him with a pint of bottled bait 

 and angles for the wily flounder. Just where Gowanus 

 Canal ripples into the bay is his favorite spot. Here he 

 sits and makes mental note of his impressions. He has 

 kindly consented that the following beautiful poem, 

 written on the margin of Gowanus's water, should be 

 printed: 



"Whin care and noise oppress me, 



An 1 politics makes me sick, 

 To fin' woods I go like a bumble bee 



An* whittle a hit iv a sthick. 

 "An' whin I have it whittled fine 



On its end I tie a string, 

 An' thin this gall us fishing line 



In Gowanus Bay I fling. 

 "Then the flounders come to meet their fate, 



While th' bay is soft an' c'am, 

 An' gobbles me bate, so clane an' so nate 



Shure I always fish wid clam." 



New York Waters. — Two salmon were taken at the 

 eastern end of Long Island on Monday, May 9. They 

 were captured hi Fort Pond Bay, which is a few miles 

 west of Montauk Point. The fish weighed 10 and 121bs. , and 

 were sent to Fulton Market. There is no stream near the 

 bay, and the salmon were probably on their way toward 

 some of the rivers of Connecticut, or possibly seeking the 

 Hudson. Last Sunday, May 8, Messrs. Van Dwyer and 

 Smack, shad fishermen of Stapleton, Staten Island, New 

 York Bay, caught in their nets a lolb. salmon. 



A New Float.— Mi-. Levi W. Clark, of Nashua, N. H., 

 has devised a new buoy or float which has a gripper in the 

 head, from Avhich the line is easily detached, alio whig 

 free play while the buoy floats on the surface. The buoy 

 can be adjusted to any length of line, to suit depth of 

 water, and can be taken off without removing sinker or 

 hook. 



The Passaic County Fish and Game Protective 

 Association, of Paterson, N. J., sends us its printed con- 

 stitution and by-laws. This society is doing excellent 

 work. The secretary is Mr. Cbas. A. Shriner. 



"SABLE ISLAND SUPPOSITIONS." 



Editor Fo7-cst and Stream: 



My attention has been called to a paragraph in your issue of 

 May 5, entitled "Sable Island Suppositions," in which, referring 

 to my article, "An Ocean Graveyard," in the May Scrthner% you 

 suggest that 1 have been guilty of plagiarism from Osgood's "Guide 

 to the Maritime Provinces." 



Permit mo to say in reply to your charge, which you apparently 

 sustain by quotations, that I am not aware of ever having had a 

 copy of Osgood's Guide in my hands or of ever having encountered 

 quotations from it. As to the resemblance between the passage 

 quoted from my article and the paragraph attributed to Dr. Gil- 

 pin, the explanation simply is, that in my MS., as first submitted, 

 due credit was given to Dr. Gilpin for the assistance his graphic 

 account of a visit to the island had affoided me. Editorial exi- 

 gencies, however, required the compression of the article, and in 

 doing this the passage referring to Dr. Gilpin was omitted. 



Asking your early publication of this, 1 remain, sir. yours very 

 truly, . J. Macdonald Oxlev. 



Ottawa, May 7. 



[To show that his uncredited Gilpin extracts were not taken from 

 "Osgood's Guide," Mr. Oxley might have added that his Scribncr's 

 paper contained more Gilpin matter than is given in the 

 "Guide." This, on further examination, we find to be the case. It 

 makes really no difference where the reprint portions come from; 

 the quotation marl .s at least should have been retained, and we 

 advise Mr. Oxloy in future to insist that his editor must do this in 

 spite of the most exigent call for compression. We suppose that 

 a better regard for quotation marks would have prompted the 

 author of an article on "Sable Island" in Harper's for January, 

 lSlXi, to have given credit for matter there borrowed frdmMr. 

 Oxley's Scrilmer's paper of May, 1886.] 



