May 3t, tgoa.j 
AND 
An Outing in Ontario. 
Last week I got a IcLtfcf from a friend in norlheni 
)ntario, Canada, telling of wild flowers plucked on March 
5, while we in Pennsylvania were gathering snowballs, 
t seems King Winter released his icy grasp at least three 
eeks earlier in Ontario than usual, and when I heard of 
/ild flowers and pine woods, my spirit faster than flight 
f wood duck, flew thither ; but my 185 pounds avoirdupois 
i not so handy with wings; at any rate. I am chained to 
usiness, but the dust-begrimed atomsphere of Pittsburg 
orms a fine background for any rainbows of hope you 
nay have; and just now I see the aurora, for in less than 
wo months I will cast aside the galling straps of busi- 
ess and for two months more I will revel in the delights 
hat charm far from the haunts of men — and women. 
As a purely business proposition, an outing in the 
ountry is the sanest and safest investment that may 
le made. I well know, and am sad because I know, there 
re so very many people, good enough to be kings and 
(ueens. and jacks, perhaps, who I suppose can't get 
way from business; but there are hordes who could but 
lon't, and for them my sympathy goes out. They miss 
much. Would not their invigorated systems have dc- 
:lared each day and hour of the subsequent years hand- 
ome dividends on the investment in the way of improved 
lealth, high-bounding spirits, absence of 
loctors with their ill-smelling salts, and 
m ever-tightening grip on the golden 
leece of good health? 
I am persuaded that the time and 
noney lost in reduced earning capacity 
n sickness, and in many cases prema- 
ure death, that might have been saved 
\y a timely halt for recuperation — these 
osses would much more than cover the 
leficits caused by an outing. 
I do not mean an outing spent in visit- 
ng hot, stifling cities, dwelling in 
sumptuous hotels with elaborate menus, 
out outings spent far away in the green, 
glorious world of the country, far from 
he madding crowd, from the crash of 
mmping cars and screaming whistles 
ind the multitude of ear-splitting sounds 
hat like battering rams of old do ever- 
astingly beat against our nervous cita- 
iels, until, unless a relief force comes to 
he rescue, the nerve centers surrender 
o those relentless foes of civilization — 
nsomnia and nervous prostration. 
There be many whose idea of an out- 
ng is to live at an expensive hotel, dress 
so that Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these, and I might 
add these same toil not, neither do they 
pin. But for the toilers and the spin- 
ners, go ye rather to the mountains, any- 
where where air and water are abundant 
and pure, where the f©6d and drink arc 
not too rich ; for your tired stomach will 
revel in an outing free from the arduous 
toil of digesting over-rich food. 
I have for many years spent my outing 
in northern Canada, and have found it 
so satisfactory and inexpensive that I 
have tried no further. This region fur- 
nishes all the delights my soul longs for, 
and why change? 
For many years the Severn River, 
about 100 miles north of Toronto on 
the Grand Trunk Railroad, has been my 
headquarters, and radiating from this 
point as a center I have visited many 
points in northern Ontario and Quebec. 
J. N. Davidson, President of the Sec- 
ond National Bank, Allegheny, Pa., kept 
telling me of the delights of Lakes Kip- 
pewa and Temeskaming, on the Canadian 
Pacific Railway, about 100 miles east of 
North Bay, and 236 miles north of 
Toronto. On Aug. 13 last we boarded 
the North Bay express and were soon rumbling north- 
ward through the flat, rocky country. The green pines, 
sandwiched in between the ever-present dead pine tim- 
ber gives rather a weird tone to the scenery, and this is 
enhanced by the dark brown color of the old Laurentian 
rocks that crop out everywhere, but further north these 
give way to the Huronian rocks, which are brighter in 
color. We were soon to Huntsville, where I had tarried 
three years ago on a trout fishing trip to the Lake of Bays 
District, and we caught plenty of trout, too. Huntsville 
affords wonderful advantages for the hunter, angler and 
tourist, for sport is here unsurpassed and easily accessible 
on account of the great stretches of water of Vernon 
Lake, Fairy Lake, Peninsular Lake and Lake of Bays. 
At Huntsville there was a vast throng of farmers 
gathered to see the Great Pan-American Circus. For 
fifty- miles many had journeyed to see the show. I was 
among the crowd. 
We arrived at North Bay next day. This is a great 
resort for anglers. Lake Nipissing is a famous lake for 
big muscallonge, pike, pickerel, bass and other fish. At 
the other end of the Nipissing is the French River, where 
bass fishing is unsurpassed. 
I drove about eight miles to what the people in North 
Bay called Four-Mile Creek. We took dinner at a hotel 
on Trout Lake. Many years ago I had stopped there 
with Dick Jessup, but Dick is gone, and his hotel was 
burned and Dick's successor burned with it. His widow 
built a fifteen-room brick hotel with splendid accom- 
modations for thirty or forty guests. I here picked up a 
young commercial traveler from New York city, and to- 
gether we journeyed four miles further over a slight 
scar over the surface of the earth that the natives called 
a good cage road. Where we met the creek I turned 
to the left and followed the creek for about a mile, with 
thirty-nine trout as a result, and all very good fish. But 
it was laborious work through tangled alders, over fallen 
pines, suited better for the strides of a moose than a 
plain, fat Irishman. 
I worked my way back over the boulders in the bed of 
the creek to the aforementioned scar called in Canada a 
cage road, and found my new friend mourning because he 
had taken no fish. L-Tc had only an alder pole and couldn't 
cast, and nature never designed him for an angler, any- 
way — too lazy, sluggards arc never good trout anglers. 
I then took the creek to the right and worked my way 
down a half-mile and took a few good trout, and had 
the pleasure of seeing five deer grazing in a clearing. 
Two fawns were, among the number. Moose tracks were 
abundant, but that was the nearest I came to the moose. 
That night we stayed at the hotel on Trout Lake. By 
the way, this Trout Lake is a magnificent water for 
angling, and almost rivals Rangeleys in size. There are 
Trout Lake, Talon, Mud Lake, Nipissing and others, all 
excellent fishing grounds for bass, pickerel, salmon trout, 
speckled trout, muscallonge. pike — and what fine fishing it 
is — and the hunter finds bear, deer, moose, and partridge 
in abundance. This is a practically new region, easily ac- 
cessible by the Canadian " Pacific Railroad from Mont- 
real and points east, or the Grand Trunk from the 
south. 
Tuesday about 9 P. M. we left North Bay for Mat- 
tawa. some fifty miles east of North Bay, on the Canadian 
Pacific Railroad. It was t o'clock when we arrived at 
Mattawa, and in a blinding rainstorm we hunted the 
nearest hotel. There we found two rowdies, who in- 
formed us there were no vacant rooms in the hotel — none 
WILD DUCKS AT PALM BEACH, FLORIDA. 
in 'the town. They had tried everywhere. During the 
night these rowdies tossed pennies to see who would pry 
open the dining room door and steal lunch for both. The 
big one in the mackintosh lost, and instead of prying 
open the door of the dining room, he crawled in over 
the transom, but all he could find was some loaf sugar and 
two dozen eggs, and he brought both along. I thought 
my only chance was to stay in this office or go out in the 
rain, and I chose to stay. When the sugar was done 
they stood an egg in the middle of the room and rolled 
others to hit it, best three our of five to win, and loser 
to pry open the pantry door, and the big one again lost, 
and because he refused to pry open the door, the other 
one soaked him with a couple of eggs, some of which 
came my way. 
You may rest assured I didn't sleep very well until those 
rowdies took a freight east at 2 A. M. In the morning 
I learned the landlord had plenty of rooms. Next morn- 
ing dawned clear and cold. Every one was shivering in 
the dining room at breakfast, and the waitress smiled a 
large encircling French grin when I inquired if it were 
always so cold. Mattawa. like Ottawa and Toronto and 
many other towns bearing Indian names, means "meeting 
place" in Chippewa, for here for nearly 200 years the 
whites have met the Indians to barter for furs. The 
Hudson Bay Fur Company has had a trading post here 
for over a century. Mattawa is a town of perhaps 1,000 
people, and is a famous outfitting station for parties going 
into the interior on hunting and fishing excursions. Good 
guides may be had for $1.50 to $2 a day; canoes for 25 
and 50 cents a day, all birch bark Algonquin models.. 
Here" I met Mr. E. O. Taylor, the factor of the Hudson 
Bay Fur Company, who explained to me their mode of 
dealing with the Indians. In the warehouse on the 
banks of the Mattawa River I saw great quantities of raw 
bear, beaver, marten, and lynx hides, all this both inter- 
esting and sad to me, for I kept continually thinking as 
I saw those piles and piles of furs, how long will the 
supply of furs last? A sad thought and a sudden one is 
that I have heard it confidently asserted by those best 
qualified to know, that bear, beaver, marten and perhaps 
some other animals lose the power of reproduction when 
the hide is removed. 
Mr. Taylor said his company usually Advanced the In- 
dian trappers a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars 
worth of equipment and supplies during the summer and 
fall, as a sort of chattel mortgage on their next year's catch. 
Of course, said Mr, Taylor, many of the Indians who 
apply for provisions are drunken, worthless fellows, 
wholly unworthy of trust, but if at all reliable, the In- 
dians may obtain the needed supplies. Of course, this by 
some is not looked upon as either a charitable or even 
creditable undertaking on the part of the fur company. 
Four miles back of Mattawa, at a little lake called. 
McCracken Lake, if I remember aright, we had a fine 
morning's sport with speckled trout. By going on to 
Little Jocko and Antoine Creek, you can have trout fish- 
ing long to be remembered. A year previous I had 
fished them and knew. I regretted I could not stay longer 
in Mattawa, but I had many places yet to visit. 
Friday morning was selected for a trip to the Kippewa 
country. The train goes only^three times a week, and 
you must take this into account. At 9:05 A. M. the train 
was due, but it was several fives after nine before it 
came. 
This was a day fraught with more than the usual 
amount of excitement, as about seventy-five lumbermen 
were leaving home for the lumber re- 
gions north of Lakes Temiskaming and 
Kippewa, and most of them wouldn't see 
home until the next spring. Many of 
them were Chippewa Indians, and one 
young Indian bride showed signs of 
sadness on her otherwise stolid face. 
I here met Mr. McKenzie, a former 
agent of the Hudson Bay Company at 
Mattawa. who gave me much valuable 
information as to best route for canoe 
trip to the Hudson Bay. This trip to 
James Bay requires about thirty-five. days 
there and back, and is certainly an in- 
teresting journey, and one I propose 
some time to make. 
At to A. M. we pulled away from 
Mattawa, crossing the Ottawa River on 
an old wooden bridge. From Mattawa 
you may look over the River Ottawa and 
see the Old Laurentian Mountains, a 
spur of the Appalachian system. Our 
train runs right along the foot of the 
mountains following the course of the 
Ottawa to Gordon s Creek. 
The Ottawa is a charming river, 
guarded on each side by the Laurentian 
Mountains, which are well wooded with 
pine, cedar and hemlock'. The river is 
full of' floating logs. I stopped off at 
Temiskaming station. I had hoped to 
meet Mr. Lumdsen here, one of the most 
enterprising and sagacious business men 
of Canada, and I greatly enjoy meeting 
any man who has made Irs life a suc- 
cess, but Lumdsen was in Montreal. 
Here the Jocko River enters the Ot- 
tawa, and is far famed for its brook 
trout, as is the Opemicon and other 
streams further up toward Gordon 
Creek. 
Saturday morning we ascended this 
river about five miles and began trying 
for trout. While the sport was not to 
be compared to Anderson Lake, yet we 
had a fine day's fun. 
In bends of the creek where the 
shredded roots of some old pine tree < 
stuck out over the water, resernbling 
the whiskers of some patriarchal Boer 
— in such nooks reward always -came. 
In one sharp bend where the water 
was deepest and almost hidden by over- 
hanging tamaracks above and tag alders 
below, I baited my hook, quietly slipped 
my rod through an opening and un- 
wound about ten feet of line and dropped it to the water. 
Hardly had the bait touched water than there was a vigor- 
ous strike and terrific splashing. I could scarcely see 
through the brush to the water, and there was no chance 
for the finer manipulations of the gentle art. I wound 
in my fish for a few feet, when he made a rush and car- 
ried away a dozen yards of line, and I counted him among 
the treasures gone, but I had hardly turned the reel when 
he vaulted clear of the water. I handled it the best I 
could, and finally dragged up the bank a really grand 
fish of about a pound and a half.- My, but I was ex- 
cited, and all the more delighted because I had taken 
him amid many difficulties. 
I moved up the bank about twenty feet further and 
did likewise with respect to the underbrush, and soon 
hooked a heavy fish, which tangled my line in an old sub- 
merged tree top. This fish I lost, but took two others 
of about three-quarter pound each. I had so much trouble 
with my trout in this locality that I moved up to a shal- 
lower pool, where I saw several trout lying lazily on the 
sandy bottom. They all refused the bait one one, who 
lazily sucked in the bait in a sluggish fashion that was a 
disgrace to his tribe. 
In some riffles above here I cast up and let my bait float 
down in around the rocks, and was rewarded by a dozen 
or more fair trout. 
In a bend above where I saw the trout on the sandy 
bottom, on the bank were large moose tracks. He had 
just passed. Perhaps I frightened him, for where he 
crossed the muddy water was still rising from his track 
and coloring the water below. 
Tired of taking trout,' I sat on a fallen hemlock and 
watched a pair of ruffed grouse (pheasants, we called 
them as boys in the country) and their young brood of 
nine, wallowing in the dust of a decayed pine. They 
seemed entirely unmindful of me, and were still enjoying 
themselves when I left. The male gave me a unique ex- 
hibition in the way of a "fan drill." using his barred tail 
as a fan, opening and shutting it, erecting it and depressing 
it in many variations, as he paraded in front of his harem. 
It was late when we got back to the Bellevue Hotel at 
