[August 6, 1904. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
125 
^ ^ CANOEING AND SPORT ^ ^ 
By L. O. ARMSTRONG 
Much good sport is to be enjoyed from ocean to ocean 
in Canada on the great Canadian transcontinental rail- 
way which crosses several heights of land. It is well 
known that small lakes on high elevations are as richly 
stocked with fish as the mountains are with game. ' One 
reason for this is that the settlements and farms are 
generally found in the valleys. 
Taking a map of Canada and traveling from east to 
west we begin with New Brunswick, with its salmon 
rivers, its trout streams, its bass lakes, and its great 
moose hunting grounds. Then we come to Moose Head 
Lake, in Maine, and Lake Megantic on the international 
boundary line. Through the eastern townships of Quebec 
which lie between the Maine boundary and Montreal ; 
along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River from 
Quebec to the far northern part of Lake Superior, are 
innumerable streams and lakes and great tracts of forest 
which are practically in a virgin state. In Quebec there 
are many clubs and preserves, but in Ontario and the 
west thereof there are none. The Government, however, 
protects fish and game, and many people think that the 
■ fishing and shooting in Ontario is the best obtainable. 
Manitoba has the best duck, goose, and sandhill crane 
shooting in Canada. There is also moose and elk in the 
ridges to the north. In addition to all these, there are 
antelope and mule deer on the slopes of the Rockies in 
Alberta. 
British Columbia and Alaska are known to give the 
. best big-game trophies in America. I have heard of very 
good shooting to be had on new ground reached from 
Golden, B. C. I have the permission of the Rev. C. F. 
Yates, of that place, to use his name as one who is will- 
ing to. give information to bona fide sportsmen. 
I would, however, at this time, complete my notes of 
the Mississaga canoe trip to bring them up to date, al- 
though I have to threaten Forest and Stream with an- 
other communication before I am through. 
THE DESBARATS TERMINAL. 
MISSISSAGA CANOE TRIP. 
m 
In your issue of May 7, I spoke of other terminal 
points to -the Mississaga River trip in Ontario, Canada. 
I have received many letters from your readers asking 
for information about these. I send you an account of 
one of these — an absolutely new canoe trip. 
We are told that the world is filling up rapidly, and 
. that the sensations of the explorer and the discoverer are 
known to but few of the present generation. But 
not so very far from their own border line American 
sportsmen can find a wide district that is likely to remain 
But at the same time isolation is complete enough, and 
one may feel all the excitement of penetrating into the 
unknown, of mapping out new routes, of finding new 
lakes and streams, of blazing paths through trackless for- 
ests, and of being in some instances the very first in the 
field. 
Grace and Strength. 
There is moose and deer all the way from the main 
line at Winnebago down to Desbarats. If a man has 
only a fortnight, let him start at Winnebago and get to 
Timber Berth No. 195, half way down the Mississaga as 
quickly as he can. At that point let him leave the Missis- 
saga for the headwaters or mother lakes of the Thessalon 
and Echo rivers. As soon as he has reached these he 
is out of the beaten track, and he will follow a canoe 
route that has not yet been fully traveled by any white 
Lake. This lake contains pickerel, and another quartei 
of a mile brings you to Bocage Lake, which also contains 
pickerel. 
A quarter of a mile to the west of Bccage Lake are 
some natural caves which are well worth visiting. As 
you paddle' across the lake you can see the entrance to 
these caves and from the canoe you can make a good 
photograph of them. 
Then three-quarters of a mile, all down hill, lands 
you into Desbarats Lake, famous not so much for the 
great number and variety of its fish as for their size.. 
The maskinonge and the dore are caught here. The 
outlet of this lake makes a pretty rapids, called by the 
Indians Red Rose Maiden Falls. They have a very pretty 
iegend about them. A two-mile easy paddle down the 
meandering Desbarats River brings us to Desbarats sta- 
tion, and this is the best terminal of the three routes 
that can be taken from Winnebago down the Mississaga 
to the Soo branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 
There is a good village hotel at Desbarats, and a little 
less than two miles from the station are the Hiawatha 
Camp Hotels, where the Indian play is given, and where 
canoes and guides can be obtained, and the news of the 
world enjoyed. Here the respect for the Indian guide 
which had developed into almost a sense of personal in- 
feriority as regards yourself, is weakened as you don 
your good clothes and mix with your fellows. But not- 
withstandingthis transition of feeling, you will entertain 
a very considerable amount of affection for the same 
Indian guide, and you will feel like doing something for 
him, which feeling should not prompt you to spoil him 
by extravagant gifts, but may generally be satisfied by the 
gift of your camping clothes, and sometimes a moderate 
libation by way of rewarding his admirable — if compul- 
sory — sobriety during the trip. 
The country we have traversed in imagination is a 
good moose hunting country — as good as the writer 
knows. The hunting seems to be better near the settle- 
ments than it does a longer distance from them. The 
moose to a certain extent, and the deer to a larger extent, 
come to the settlements for protection. The Ontario 
Government has reserved in this district 3,000 acres of 
pine land, and the forest guardians are to be game 
guardians as well. The Government will not rent any 
of this land for preserving, but keeps it for the enjoy- 
ment of all. Land can be bought in fee simple, and that 
can be preserved. In this respect the policy of the 
Ontario Government is entirely different from that of 
the Province of Quebec. 
There is a good through express train service to and 
from both Desbarats and Winnebago. A dining car and 
On Desbarats River — Desbarats Lake in the Distance. 
Leaving Dksbarats Rapids Portage. 
for a long time in its primitive state, owing to the 
fact that the Ontario Government is now giving a fair 
amount of protection not only to forests, but also to 
game and fish. The Canadian waterways, so widelv 
and justly celebrated, are here found at their very best. 
A broad river flows majestically on its way to 
unburden itself in the Great Lakes." Once its banks are 
left, the explorer, who would otherwise have to cut his 
path through the primeval forest, finds a long series of 
lakes, each one of which would be valued alone if in 
some country less bountifully supplied with them, and 
each one so abounding in fish that to award the palm 
would be to encounter all the difficulties of Paris. 
The hunter of big game who penetrates these 
pathless wilds must either be a poor shot or very 
greedy if he does not return satisfied with his per- 
formances, and resolved that when the opportunity 
again presents itself he will return to the scenes of his 
conquests. Let the American sportsman make one essay 
for himself. Already some of them know what pleasant 
places for sport are to be found in Canada, and may be 
disposed to look favorably upon the claims of northern 
Ontario, and particularly upon the portion where, so far 
as is known, sportsmen have not yet traveled, and where 
only Indians tell of regions still to be located by the white 
man. While explorations into these Canadian woodlands 
is no longer dangerous, it has about it just enough ad- 
venture to appeal to that feeling in the American which 
has made him a pioneer in the world's progress. Scarcely 
anywhere is it needful to be too far from the railway or 
from some settler's home, to be unable to make a speedy 
return to civilization whenever such a move is desirable. 
man. In fact, it is not yet mapped out. But there is mak- 
ing a map which I have no doubt Forest and Stream 
will furnish to its readers when complete. 
This southwestern part of the Mississaga canoe trip is 
about sixty miles in length. The sixth lake from the 
Mississaga is the first whose name I know. It is called 
Carpenter Lake. I met the surveyors who had blocked 
out these timber berths, and they told me that in three 
of these townships every stream has brook trout, and 
in some of the smaller lakes three-pounders were com- 
mon. It may be necessary in the case of low water to 
drive by wagon road from Carpenter Lake to Patton 
Lake near Hoaths. There is a solitary German settler, 
I am told, away up on Carpenter Lake, and these soli- 
tary settlers are blessings. They know the surrounding 
country, and generally they have bread and potatoes to 
sell, and occasionally other vegetables. By the time Car- 
penter Lake is reached the sportsman has generally been 
long enough without potatoes to appreciate them. From 
Patton Lake there is a short portage to Island Lake. 
These two are in the township of McMahon. The drive 
from Carpenter Lake to Hoaths is through the town- 
ship of Morin, which lies southwest of 195. 
From Island to Heart Lake, through waters teeming 
with bass and lake trout, we reach at length Lonely Lake. 
There is one solitary settler on Lonely Lake— a man 
called Watson, who is a very decent fellow. His team 
will drive you to McLean's on Diamond Lake. This 
lake sometimes has three names given to it, as it is 
really a chain of three lakes, but I prefer to call it 
Diamond Lake. At the southernmost point of this lake 
we find a portage of a quarter of a mile to Gray Duck 
sleeping car enable the traveler to thoroughly enjoy his 
return to civilization, the temporary deprivation from 
such luxuries rendering them far more welcome than 
when he has them as a matter of course. If you are 
going east you can get such a luncheon as you will appre- 
ciate; and if west, dinner will be served shortly after 
you join the train. We have ourselves taken one or two 
meals in this way, and are quite certain that there was 
no' profit to the railway company out of them. 
As to the big game, I have myself seen two moose 
swim across the mouth of the Desbarats River, and fre- 
quently moose are seen in the pastures with the cattle. 
On my trip from Desbarats Lake to Diamond Lake I 
saw deer and partridge. Joe Alderson, of Gordon Lake, 
six miles from Desbarats, says that his party killed two 
moose on Coffee Creek last fall, and Caribou Jack, a 
local guide, whose post-office address is Rydal Bank, 
Ont., knows where there are plenty of moose. In fact, 
they are increasing in number through the entire region 
from Winnebago- to Desbarats. The building of the rail- 
ways in the upper Ottawa and in the country east of 
Desbarats, and the building of the Algoma Central, west 
of Desbarats, has driven the moose and deer into the 
unoccupied regions immediately north and northeast of 
Desbarats, between that station and Winnebago. 
It has been arranged to have a carload of the best 
Oldtown canvas-covered canoes for the Mississaga trip 
at the disposal of the Canadian Pacific Railway authori- 
ties, who will dispose of them at actual cost without 
charging for freight. They will be at the starting points 
of the Mississaga trip, at Biscotasing and Winnebago, 
and some will be found at Desbarats. 
