620 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May 17, 1913 
clom of God, wliether this personage be abstract 
or concrete. My God is not a God of written 
creeds, yon know. I am nothing, if not plain 
in mj- edict; my God is a God wliere the giant 
mountains tower toward the sun, losing their 
peaks in floating mists and mellowed sunshine; 
where the great pines pierce the atmosphere and 
stand there like immortal sentinels, guarding 
intrinsic treasures; where water-falls crash, and 
where the fish lie fanning the clearest of water; 
where the sky looks down into transparent lakes 
and forgets itself in a rapt reverie, startled 
by its own likeness; where there are no rum¬ 
bling wagons, drays, automobiles, cars, smoke, 
dust, commercialized humans, frozen smiles, 
mocking voices—out where everything is free 
and still, so still that you can stand in those 
great aisles and drop a pin and hear it fall upon 
the tender carpeted earth. In such places I am 
brought face to face with nature God. In such 
a place I hear the immortal voices, and the call 
is strong within me for striving for the greater 
things in life; it is only there you will realize 
the bigger ideals. 
The great wilderness territory of the past 
has been drowned by the tides of civilization; 
further and further into those blessed aisles of 
the forest man has intruded with his methods 
and mechanical devices, his improved methods 
of making the land yield its utmost in one thing 
or another—and I presume it must be so, for 
there is no stopping the great, great reaching 
out for power and supremacy. These factors 
level the forests, uproot nature and her im¬ 
mortality and plant cabbages where once the 
mighty pine held s\yay. To the set of people 
on one side of the fence this looks highly en¬ 
couraging, I presume. To the lovers of nature 
this looks about as much the opposite as any¬ 
thing in the world could. I never see a tree 
chopped down without feeling a sense of the 
greatest sorrow; the biting ax-blade sneers me 
into insignificance, the plow-share contemptu¬ 
ously turns the furrows in my face. So much 
to the nature lover is just memory upon mem¬ 
ory. what was at one time and what hints one 
may have of her before the final curtain is 
drawn. To such of you as love nature and have 
the wherewithal to see such a place, you will 
find it in Ontario. This is the last big primeval 
ground to which the people of the East might 
look, and the eyes of many a nature lover is 
yearly fi.xed upon this region. Take Algonquin 
National Park, for instance; this is the pride 
of Canada. Had Canada nothing else behind 
it but Algonquin National Park, it would be 
sufficient to put it on the map for all time. 
God grant that this last great wilderness be 
conserved and allowed to remain as it is, un¬ 
stained by the bitter commercial spirit and 
guarded and ‘'pampered," to safe-guard its sur¬ 
vival. And I think this region will remain as 
it i.-;—a bright spot on the map of Canada, to 
which lovers of nature might turn with con¬ 
fidence and hope. 
Algonquin National Park contains in the 
neighborhood of two million acres of almost 
comjjlete wilderness, a land of numerous lakes 
and streams, where the fisherman, canoeist and 
the camper revel in opportunities untold. To 
either of the three there is an abundance of 
territory to choose from—a virgin country and 
one of the few left in the world to-day—where 
one is assured of the best and nothing el.'e. 
There is also a fullness and completeness be¬ 
nignly associated with it, and a summer spent 
in Algonquin is a summer well spent. 
Tapped on the south by the Grand Trunk 
Railroad, one finds that it is easy to start out 
from this point and hit for the interior with¬ 
out any inconvenience whatsoever. The rail¬ 
road, until it was built to enter this region, was 
the missing link. Now the chain is complete 
and the years to come will witness the putting 
of Algonquin National Park on the list to stay. 
As year by year goes on, its popularity must 
become more and more pronounced, for with 
its magnificent outlay of virgin forest land, in¬ 
imitable lakes and picturesque streams, it yields 
to the ardent lover of the big, vast, unconquered 
earth a hint of how close one is able to get 
to God and still remain in human flesh and 
blood. I'ruly a region of plenty. Here one 
may revel in the fruit of the out-of-doors and 
OUR PERMANENT CAMP. 
the fullness thereof. Here you will be able to 
regain your lost youth and your strength, if 
you have worn your body out on the grindstone 
of commercialism, and realizing the emptiness 
of your life, have chosen the long, long trail 
as the means of resurrecting the vigor and 
health everyone worships before. This sounds 
like a railroad advertisement, does it not? 
Well, it is a scheme to separate you from your 
home and loved ones, which may be your 
blessed cartwheels. It is the indissoluble fact. 
I come to put 3'ou next. I am the guy with 
one foot in heaven and one on good solid earth, 
and I am jealous of the fact that some sneering 
wrath, actuated by human thought and action, 
would say, “Now where is your wilderness?’’ 
I have come to tell you it is right to the 
northward, and if you ever come to go there, 
you will find out how true is every word I have 
used. 'J'his is the home of the good old pug¬ 
nacious black bass—“inch for inch the gamest 
fish that swims." If you belong to the clan 
who yearly paste the lily-pads with frogs and 
various and sundry artificial baits, then let your 
mind rest long and lovingly upon this region, 
the lakes of which teem with an abundance of 
the right sort—fish that are worthy of being 
called “inch for inch the gamest fish that 
swims.’’ 
I have taken quite a number of black bass 
in my day. Black bass have been my specialty 
for years, and I have studied, fished and lived with 
the critter, and I flatter myself to say that in 
outfitting for bass I could give you some valu¬ 
able pointers; but this is not pre-eminently an 
outfitting article. As I say, you will find the 
true black bass here with some dash and vim 
in every atom from tail to tip of the nose. 
None of the sluggish fellows you are used to 
calling bass which lay drowsing away in half 
stagnant waters, but bass alive and alert and 
born fighters; the water is always cold, and that 
is the infinite reason they are different. The 
water is transparent to such an extent that you 
can bend over the edge of the boat and see the 
bottom as clearly as though it were but a few 
feet down. Such water as this one is able to 
call water without being assaulted. 
The brook trout foun.d in Algonquin Park 
are certainly some of the finest in this coun¬ 
try; in the lakes they will run up to four and 
five pounds in weight, though the general run 
is, of course, far smaller, to create a set aver¬ 
age. They are well turned, and live up to the 
name of being one of the most beautiful and 
poetic fishes that swim. They are caught by 
trolling with spoon hooks, with minnows, still¬ 
fishing, and with flies, casting. The salmon 
trout taken here run up to fifteen pounds in 
weight and are notable for the gameness they 
show. The angler who gets a salmon trout on 
the end of his line is certain of a tussle and no 
end of excitement. 
It is hereby made note of that there are 
two hotels in the park, for the accommodation 
of such tourists, or outers, not inclined to tap 
the region further in by means of canoe, camp¬ 
ing or fishing, and one has but to be there once to 
realize the completeness of it, and the courtesy 
and good-will manifest will bare the fact that 
this is a place where you can live, leaving hide¬ 
bound conventionality behind. “Live in com¬ 
fort and let style take care of itself,” is the 
motto. All seem to live up to it. 
You will find here stores where you are 
able to outfit for your trip inland; there is 
nothing you desire in the line of an outfit that 
is not there. Canoes, tents, clothing, fishing 
paraphernalia, supplies, etc., are procurable 
upon a moment’s notice; so if you think of 
going there and do not want to ship an outfit 
you are able to get things there almost as 
cheap, some things cheaper, and you will be 
assured of the best, remember that. Shipping 
an outfit to the starting point is one thing and 
to get it right at the spot is another. The 
man who has tried it will know that a whole lot 
of bother is saved by choosing the latter course. 
For the nature lover who is in search of 
variety, who is a student of the waj'S of the 
wild animals and birds, who finds rapture in 
adding to his store of experience as a woods- 
crafter, and who has a penchant for taking 
pictures, I certainly would recommend this sec¬ 
tion of the land. For the simple reason that it 
is what you might call primeval grounds; you 
have it here seemingly the same as when the 
Creator left it “on the seventh day”—to add a 
phrase from the written creeds. When you get 
the picture of an animal here, it is one of in¬ 
nocence and charm depicted in every feature— 
no self-conscious and shrinking types brought 
on by the intrusion of man, but the nobility of 
