618 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 15, 1893. 



LAC TSCHOTAGAMA. 



"LA.BAS. Lac Tschotagama," said Frangois Goyon, taU, 

 gaunt, weather-beaten and gi-ay-bearded, the rugged, 

 stern Montagnais face lit with enthusiasm as he pointed 

 to the dim Laurentian Peaks, shining far distant on the 

 other side of Lac St. .Jean. 



"Une belle rivierel La Grande Peribonka," he paused as 

 the name of the river, gravely intoned, full of sweet 

 cadences and majesty, fell upon the ear, creatmg an in- 

 definable sensation akin to the feeling caused by the nalt- 

 breed of the North Shore when one first hears them utter 

 the word "Labrador." c 4.0, - 



Francois, oracle among voyageurs, spokesman ot their 

 united experience and premier among the guides, address- 

 ing us with laconic sentences, divided by silences that 

 spoke volumes the Indian nature would not deign to use, 

 tempting us to make the journey. , 



There we stood, that July morning, 1891, upon the 

 piazza of Hotel Roberval, Lake St. John, Arnie (Arnold 

 W. Koehler, of New York) and I, with the four ^half- 

 breed guides, Frangois, Josef Savoir, Davide Phdlipe 

 and Louis Tremblay. discussing whether we should 



fo. Eoberval stretched around us with a cordon 

 leu of Laurentian ranges, running around the rim 

 of the horizon like a necklace of sapphires, while 

 in its center lay Lac St. Jean, now ghstening in 

 the sun hke a great emerald, then changing into 

 a great turquoise, and then as fleecy clouds raced 

 across the sky neutraled into a great pool of quick- 

 silver, smooth as a mirror, stretching far beyond 

 vision, until it was lost in 



" The silvery haze of the summer dawn." 



I heard Josef Savoir say, "Alo tshipa miluetara.nts 

 epinan ka mishalits meshtoko mitshiuapits at uitshe- 

 utok tshe otinamok ounaniche kiemashimekushnete 

 shakaikants" (they would rather stay in the big 

 wooden house — Hotel Roberval — than go with us 

 and catch ouananiche and trout at the lake). 



The strong contemptuous Montagnais accents ar- 

 rested my attention and made me think of the 

 Nepigon, the Ottawa, the Everglades! Who does 

 not know the Indian's inbred dislike of the perma- 

 nent home? Who that has fared these out-ways of 

 the woods has not seen some deserted log shanty or 

 abandoned tepee with birch bark strewn around 

 and the significant arrangement of poles, telling the 

 cause of abandonment? "Some man died there!" 

 The superstition that the spirit of the dead haunts 

 its earthly abode! 



"Par ci par la, les ouananiche, six, ai, huit livres" 

 (here and there the ouananiche are 61bs, aye, 81bs.). 

 I shook my head doubtingly, whereupon Davide 

 indignantly ejaculated "Surement." 



Amie laughed, and the others muttered their dis- 

 approval of Davide's interference as though Frangois 

 did not require any assistance to establish the ti'uth 

 of his statements and win us over. 



"The river is filled with long Aveeds in which lurk 

 pike of an enormous size," and Frangois turned to 

 his confreres. Davide put up his hand to show the 

 length of the fish, and J osef with a ' -ugh" nodded a 

 grave approval. Louis Tremblay, bearer of a name 

 which finds its echoes among the Gascon Crusaders 

 and the French Canadians of the sixteenth century, 

 leaned against one of the pillars with true Indian 

 indifference. 



"There are magnificent falls and rapids filled with 

 salmon jumping and rising through the surge, and 

 trout leaping at the fly the instant it flits upon the 

 foam. There you will get the salmon glittering 

 white and gleaming like burnished silver in the sun 

 — fm-ther on at the Lac you will get them dark and 

 •gray, oftentimes quite black, but they aU fight like 

 devils! lis se combattent commes des diables.' 



"Where the clouds kiss the mountains, is the 

 Lac, and thence the Grande Riviere pours down to 

 the St. Jean," said Francois pointing to the dark blue 

 peaks outlined against the Canadian sky, luminous 

 in the clear atmosphere, an hundred miles away. 



"The whitefish, the large great pike," with what 

 contempt, but how vividly, how keenly, I call to 

 mind the softening of speech and mien as he said, 

 "La beUe truite et le beau saumon-ouananiclie! eh, 

 mes freres?" and then he looked at us. What need 

 of more words, Frangois? 



Who could withstand such a temptation? Who 

 could be such a sceptic as to doubt the sincerity of 

 the voyageurs? Wiio could gamsay the kmgly sport that 

 awaited us beyond the blue mountains? for royal and 

 keen-edged as the quest for the Sahno salar, the sovereig-n 

 of all finny game, is the fight with the ouananiche. 



Within every intendment of his Montagnais patronymic 

 he has in miniature every attribute and quality that liis 

 royal progenitor, the Salmo salar of the Atlantic, pos- 

 sesses and a little more. 



Beneath the thundering tons of water rushing over the 

 falls, amid eddies and whirlpools encu'cling like miniature 

 maelstroms, under foaming torrents tossing logs and 

 drifting ti-ees like playthings, where never a salmon was 

 stabbed, and like unto only the trout of the Virgin Falls 

 upon the Nepigon, the ouananiche lives in a home of 

 tumultuous, turbulent floods. Naturally a fighter, acquir- 

 mg highest development of muscle and form from habitat 

 and environment, the ouananiche savagely wars upon all 

 that dare mvade his realm, be it flashing phantom min- 

 now, glittering spoon or elusive flitting fly. 



Who has not failed to rise the salmon, althouo-h his 

 dark, blmsh green shape could be seen m the pool and 

 had his patience tiled beyond expression after days of 

 vam castmg? For that monarch wfll not rise to anything 

 save the fly, and often not even to the most dainty cret^ 

 tion of variegated feather. But the ouananiche will seize 

 dartmg minnow or swirling spoon, or swimming or flitting 

 fly with an mdescribably savage ferocity, as though the 

 mvasion of its realm were resented. 



Ofttimes when confidence is lost and the arm is tired of 

 castmg the fly, one may loll indolently in the canoe on a 

 mass of fragrant balm o' GUead and troll with a 5oz rod 

 in a canoe dancmg on the seethmg watere hke a cockle^ 

 sliell, and a battle between the instinct of the Indian and 

 ouanamche to keep the canoe free from his rushes— the 

 fight goes on. Here is a fish whose weight runs up to 

 rinVw ^ 31bs-which wages a te^ific^ 



combat often lastmg an hour, straining dainty coach- 

 whip rods and sflken tackle like unto which verily only 



the initiated can speak. Resorting to expedients and ex- 

 hibiting tricks, the Salmo salar has never been known to 

 exhibit, if he possess them! 



Furiously thrashing the water and rolling over and over 

 on tlie surface, often until the line is inextricably tangled, 

 leaping high in the air, often five feet high, six to seven 

 times, savagely shaking his head; jumping slipping 

 somersaults with a splurge-Uke roll, darting again and 

 again toward the canoe and often under it, and then, in- 

 finite regret and chagrin, dashing with a wild jump into 

 the midst of the torrent and rushing far down the foam- 

 ing current, until the white axle of the reel strikes terror 

 to your soifl and the slender 5oz. rod is unable to hold the 

 weight of line, with the ouananiche madly struggling to 

 escape an hundred yards away; when your only hope to 

 save the fish is to get on some rock in the midst of the 

 foam, with the Indian crouching at your feet, and give 

 the rod fair play, where the fish may fight in open water 

 — thus the battle goes on. 



Do you doubt that trout and bass are outclassed— that 

 this is a worthy rival of the Salvw solar? 



"HER LADTSHIP'S AVORD WAS LAW.'' 



My favorite outfit is the Wood 4ioz. lancewood rod, 

 built for me by Thomas J. Conroy, with a "G" Hercules 

 water-proof silk line, a 6ft. salmon leader with a No. 6 

 Jock-Scott fly. Then, with a 31bs. ouananiche fairly 

 stabbed, the world, for the next hour to come, is for- 

 gotten, 



"Eh, Fran^'ois," said I, coming back from Dreamland. 



"C'est la verite," said Josef Savoir, and, surrendering, 

 we bade them get stores and needful kit from Mr. Kenna 

 of the Hotel Roberval, and have canoes and packs ready 

 for an early start in the morning. 



Simday, July 4, 1891, the little steamer Undine waited 

 for captain and guides to come from Mass to take us 

 twenty-five miles across the lake to the mouth of the 

 river. Scarce were we out, when a terrific storm broke 

 and followed us across the lake. Across and then back- 

 ward and forward, this way and that, following little 

 bushes stuck in the shoals, running through imagined 

 channels, sounding with a pole, and the captain fiUing 

 the air with oaths in all tongues— Indian, French, Patois 

 and what not — we tried for the channel and finally made 

 the block house. 



Up the river, skirting the shores, trolling for brochet 

 until we wearied of their sight, we went along and caught 

 pike. One frantic leap in the air when stiiick with the 

 barbed hook, a brief thrashing of the water and the great 

 cowards came to the canoe without a struggle. Reaching 

 down and plucking them by the eves with second finger 

 and thumb, hfting them from the water, Josef Savoir 

 would dehberately take his knife and stab them in the 

 brain, and with an Indian "ugh!" throw them in the 

 bottom of the canoe a gUttering mass of gleaming yellow, 

 golden spots, bronzed and copper sides, with shining eyes 

 and great cmel jaws filled with merciless fangs. I never 

 could find game qualities in any of the family Esocidce.' 

 From Francois in the bow and Davide and Louis in the 

 other canoe came laughter keenly merry with delight 

 over the slaughter, and applause for the skUl of Josef. 



But indeed is the Peribonka "une grande riviere!" On 

 the way up the change and variety of the scenery is mar- 

 velous, for verily hath nature spoken "in various lan- 

 guage." The river widens out for miles, threads a mazy 

 way through numberless islands covered with dense 

 gi-owth of fern and bush, tree and forest, or rising in 

 naked rocky shapes of strange misshapen form, barren, 

 with scarce a shrub thereon. It narrows down and pours 

 through gorges and precipitous passes with a deafening 

 roar, forming magnificent falls, with rainbows gleaming 

 whenever the sun shines. The flood rushing and whirling 

 over rocks and around points forms pools covered with 

 great patches of foam, sometimes a foot thick, oft times 

 quaintly rising in columns two or three feet high, through 

 which the ouananiche and "poisson blanche" can be seen 

 rising after the flies lighting on the brilliant bubbles. 



At Frazier's Chute the river, passing down between 

 rocky cliffs, narrows into what Arnie aptly termed a "V- 

 shaped corsage." It was strikingly appropriate. The 

 water rushing V-shaped to the point was like quicksilver, 

 with a mirrory sheen of a brilliant emerald green hue, 

 while along the shores it broke into filmy lace of 

 whitest foam, with bubbles gleaming Hke gems; and 

 as the water leaped over the fall it seemed to widen 

 like the flowing skirt draperies suggested by the 

 simile. 



Fickle as a woman's whim, lightly humored as a 

 spoiled beauty, we foimd the ouananiche in the 

 pools below the falls! We were indeed in sore 

 plight, for rig our flies as we might, cast as we 

 would, it was only few and far between, the ouan- 

 aniche which we caught. Still, enough for camp, 

 and on we journeyed. 



What skies and what weather, Jupiter Pluvius! It 

 was rain morn and noon, rain by day and rain by 

 night. But oh, what of that ci-y, nay half animal 

 plaint of the Indian guide, be he half-breed or full- 

 breed, that is never hushed when you wish to go on 

 in the rain, "ti-op mouiUe!" AVhen flour and bread, 

 tea and coffee, are mercUessly exposed to the down- 

 pour, while the bacon and all that rain woidd not 

 harm is carefully protected! How can you assert 

 yoiu- authority and settle that question, ugly and 

 always to be avoided, that yom* gniide must go as 

 and when you wish regardless of wet or dry, the 

 problem of the bush! 



"Eh bien, Frangois! Vous etes le premier des 

 guides, et si vous ne voyagerez pas a travers la i)luie 

 comme je veux je vous ne payerai pas pour le temps 

 que vous ne travaillez, pas, et de plus je vous ne don- 

 nerai rien a manger" (Very well, Frangois. You are 

 the chief. But you will travel through the rain as I 

 wish or I will neither pay you for the time you are 

 not going nor give you anything to eat). 



A short conference apart, the braves in. council. 

 Josef speaks in Montagnais, the alternative is ac- 

 cepted, on we go. M'sieur is recognized. 



Across ]jortages where the men carried loads like 

 Duiles and through water-abandoned gorges, where, 

 w ith canoes on their shoulders, the guides went 

 leaping from rock to rock like goats, onward we 

 journeyed, up the gradual ascent of the river. Few 

 ouananiche, trout enough for two meals, caught 

 where we camped over night, beneath lynx heads 

 and claws nailed to trees, trophies of some long past 

 chase, and catching pike past aU. numbering, we 

 killed time and enjoyed the ascent until early in the 

 fternoon on the third day, we arrived at Lac 

 Tschotagama. It is an irregular body of water 

 a' out eight miles long, at its widest extent about 

 two miles, shut in by lofty mountains jutting far 

 out in the lake, and covered with woods and thick 

 imderbrush, fragrant and odorous as aU Canadian 

 forests; a miniature Lake George. 



On Dapplcr's Point we pitched our tents and jmt 

 everything in readiness for our stay of a week. It 

 was a beautiful day, the rain had stopped, the clouds 

 disappeared, and there was not a ripj)le on the lake. 

 Out on the water were great flocks of wildfowl, and 

 our eai s were fiUed with the call of ducks. Later 

 the fish began leaping from the water, "la truite," 

 send 'ng widening circles of ripples, which rolled on 

 and on until broken by the "sortez le ouananiche," 

 the «almon-like splurge of the beau saumon of the 

 Lac St. Jean region, 



Excitedly, Frangois cried, the French instinct 

 stronger than the Indian, "Thshitajram, tshi uapa- 

 mau a naie ouananiche, kushkants uets e kuashkotit, 

 usham meshte mishishto" (see the ouananiche jump 

 at the fly; what a big one), and the guides were talking 

 with each other, whether "les m'sieurs" we were satisfied 

 with the Lac. 



On Friday Arnie determined the quality of the fishing 

 by bringing in two ouananiche of Bibs. each. What a pity 

 that Arnie so detests hard work that he Avill not even tell 

 of the struggle— of the battle royal with the only finny 

 antagonist worthy of being mentioned with the Salmo 

 salar. He threw himself on the sand and stared first at 

 me and then at the fish. "By Jove! old fellow, just read 

 Victor Hugo — fight with— devil fish— you know — that's 

 about — size of it!" 



It was that afternoon we were all out on the lake in 

 the midst of sport when Joseph shouted, "Le feu!" and 

 before I knew what the excitement was, two canoes with 

 four guides madly, aye, frantically paddling, shot for the 

 shore with a wake bubbling and smoking behind us. I 

 thought it was a race, as the shirts faUing down showed 

 the muscles standing out in great cords and bunches as 

 the paddles smote the water and the canoe fairly leaped 

 beneath the impetus of the paddles. Then I looked up 

 and the whole camp seemed afire, with the flames leaping 

 from the grass and the smoke drifting in black clouds. 

 An hundred miles away from Roberval, and tents, 

 blankets, food and tackle all in flame! The canoe struck 

 the beach and fom- men rushed like deer up the shore. I 

 saw Josef and Davide throw themselves on the ground 

 and roU right into the fire. When Arnie and I got there 

 the fire was under control, but it was a close shave. A 

 little carelessness in extinguishing the camp-fire— a httle 

 wind fanning the embers, a spark in the dry grass — and, 

 what might be called a calamity, barely averted. But as 

 the guides brushed the ashes and coals from hair and 

 clothing, with pain kfller and whisky — internally admin- 

 istered d la Irlandaise—as their reward, we laughed, but 

 I think just a Uttle hysterically on our part at least. 



Saturday afternoon I reminded Davide of the "gros 

 plus gros brochet," "Oui, me voici, m'sieur," and they 



