FOREST AND STREAM 
147 
in Bradford County, a territory of hills and 
mountains covered with beech, maple, cherry and 
ash timber of thousands of acres extent which 
in those days made ideal nesting grounds for 
the wild pigeons, and I had frequently gone there 
to shoot them, and get the young squabs out of 
their nests which was accomplished by chopping 
down small trees in which the nests were built, 
and almost every tree and sappling would have 
from half a dozen to twenty nests in them, and 
I have found people who have camped out 
there and were gathering them, shooting them, 
buying them and making a business of shipping 
them to the city markets which proved a profit¬ 
able business. 
The pigeons had a peculiar habit of every 
morning commencing about daylight to fly south 
in flocks of from three to five hundred, and 
some of the flocks contained thousands, until 
ten or eleven o’clock, then they would return in 
the afternoon from four o’clock until dusk, and 
I have shot them on their return trips with rice 
in their craws, and at such times as they were 
flying over farmers some of them made a busi¬ 
Live 
CANADIAN GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The wonderful work of the Canadian Geologi¬ 
cal Department is resulting in the mapping and 
opening of new fishing and hunting territories 
throughout the Dominion. Naturally the work of 
the department is not conducted for this pur¬ 
pose, but the reports of its explorers and field 
men cover topographical, faunal and other char¬ 
acteristics of the sections, and are therefore what 
might be termed original guide books for the 
outdoor man who follows after. The current 
summary of the department gives in detail an 
account of the exploration of the headwaters of 
the Broadback or Little Nottaway river in North¬ 
western Quebec, which will interest those who 
are seeking new hunting and fishing regions. 
The country just mentioned is now about to be 
made accessible through the completion of the 
Transcontinental system across Quebec. The ex¬ 
ploration was conducted by Mr. H. C. Cooke of 
the Geological Survey, who reports as follows: 
“The writer spent the field season of 19x2 on a 
reconnoissance of a hitherto unexplored area in 
northwestern Quebec. This district about 120 
miles in length by 70 in width, lies directly to 
the west of the south end of Lake Mistassini, 
and almost wholly within the basin of Broad- 
back river. Former explorers reported the ex¬ 
istence in this region of three large streams, the 
Mill, Broadback (Victoria), and Nipukatasi 
rivers, which coalesced at Lake Evans to form 
the Broadback or Little Notaway river, emptying 
into James Bay about 12 miles south of Rupert 
House. This report proved incorrect, however. 
Investigation showed the Mill and Nipukatasi 
rivers to be very small creeks emptying into wide 
riverlike inlets which, although currentless and 
choked with weed, otherwise resembled the 
mouths of large rivers. The only large stream of 
the district is the Victoria or Broadback as it is 
now called, a river about 700 feet in width by 4 
to 6 feet in depth, and very swift. Several small 
ness of trapping them with nets. I had a ten¬ 
ant on my farm by the name of Powell Gilbert 
at that time who used to make a business of 
trapping them. He had some live ones that he 
always kept and would fasten them by the feet 
on what is known as a tip up—a board about 
eight or ten inches wide and about four feet 
long which he had arranged so that when he saw 
a large flock going over he could, from what is 
called a blind some distance away and out of 
sight of the pigeons, pull a string and move the 
tip up so that the pigeons fastened on it would 
flutter and try to fly and thus attract the atten¬ 
tion of the passing flock so that frequently they 
would come down in droves and settle around 
the stool pigeon in large numbers. Then he had 
a large net or seine arranged around the stool 
pigeon with spring poles which he coulr release 
by pulling another cord which he controlled from 
the blind and before the pigeons would realize 
what had happened he would have two or three 
dozen of them trapped under his net. He would 
then take them out and set the net again for 
another batch and in this way he caught hun¬ 
streams fall into it before it enters Lake Evans; 
these tributaries are: the stream which rises 
in Lady Beatrix lake, and the Whitefish and 
Rabbit rivers. Its waters are also joined by the 
creek that drains Lake Mishagomish and empties 
into Northeast Bay on Lake Evans. 
“The exploration was projected with the view 
of obtaining preliminary information as to the 
topography, regional geology, soil, mineral and 
timber resources of this region. As the area to 
be explored was large, and the time available 
for exploration limited, it was impossible to do 
more than investigate the principal watercourses 
and canoe routes. These routes were rapidly 
traversed and a track survey made, distance be¬ 
ing determined by the use of the canoe log or by 
estimation with the eye, direction by the prismatic 
compass. Had discoveries warranted, more ac¬ 
curate surveys would have been undertaken; but 
as preliminary work showed that the district is 
in general underlain by gneisses, which are char¬ 
acteristically barren, such surveys were not made. 
“At the confluence of Broadback river and the 
stream flowing from Lady Beatrix lake to the 
south, the region has an average elevation of 
about 650 feet above sea-level; it rises rapidly 
eastward to Lake Mistassini, 1,200 feet above 
the sea. A rise of 550 feet thus occurs in a dis¬ 
tance of 120 miles, or an average grade of 4V2 
feet per mile. As might be inferred from this 
the rivers in their east-west courses are very 
rapid and rough. Falls, however, are not num¬ 
erous since on account of the large amount of 
coarse glacial drift in the region, the streams 
are fairly well graded. This grading, while tend¬ 
ing to lessen the number of falls and bad rapids, 
at the same time has substituted for them 
stretches of swift water, often miles in length, 
up which progress is exceedingly difficult. 
“Around Kenoniska lake and for a distance of 
about 10 miles up Broadback river the original 
dreds of them which he would either kill or 
send to market for sale or dress them and salt 
them down for future use of his family, but 
since that unusual April storm in the year 1868 
that business like the wild pigeons has disap¬ 
peared. 
*Forksville, Sullivan County, Pa., June nth, 
This is to certify that I am the Isaac Rogers 
owning the slashing spoken of by Mr. Marsden 
in the above description of what has become of 
the vast number of wild pigeons that used to 
exist in the United States previous to the un¬ 
usual late snow storm in the spring of the year 
1868 which commenced on April 7th of that 
year and the snow remained on the ground until 
about the 20th of that month and I very well re¬ 
member the coming of the pigeons at that time 
and remaining in the dense forests surrounding 
Forksville until they actually starved to death. 
For before that time they used to come from the 
south regularly every spring but since that 
spring I have never seen a single wild pigeon 
and consequently I can fully endorse the above 
statement in regard to what has become of the 
wild pigeons in every particular as described by 
Mr. Marsden. I am now a resident of Forks- 
villes, Sullivan County, Pa. 
ISAAC ROGERS. 
forest exists. This is here composed mainly of 
black spruce, the trees being usually 10 inches 
to a foot in diameter, but found also up to double 
this, size. Jackpine is common in the sandy por¬ 
tions, and grows to about the same size as the 
spruce. Poplar and birch occur, but rarely over 
a foot in diameter, and so uncommon is the lat¬ 
ter that the Indians have resorted to the use of 
canvas for making their canoes. No cedar was 
seen north of Middle Gull lake, 70 miles to the 
south of Broadback river. Farther up Broad¬ 
back river the country was swept so thoroughly 
by fires 6 or 8 years ago as to be now almost 
bare for long distances, except for a few islands 
of spruce uninjured by the fire. Over these fire- 
swept areas the blueberry grows in great profu¬ 
sion, and second-growth jackpine is beginning to 
spring up. Not until the most eastern point of 
traverse was reached did this burnt area come 
to an end. 
“Bears are unusually numerous in the district, 
and are almost the only large game animal found. 
Moose are practically unknown, and caribou not 
numerous. 
“The Grand Trunk Pacific railway now affords 
an easy means of access to the Natagagan and 
Bell rivers. Either of these streams is a good 
canoe route down to Lake Mattagami, 100 miles 
to the north. From this point a chain of lakes 
and streams, with few portages, extends east 
and north through the Gull lakes, Lady Beatrix 
lake, Opatawaga lake, and Kenoniska lake to the 
B'roadback river. Altogether, the canoe trip is 
one of about 300 miles.” 
It will be recalled that Lake Mistassini, a magni¬ 
ficent body of watjer over one hundred miles in 
length, was until within a very few years ago 
regarded as a half mythical lake by American 
sportsmen, and on account of its inacessibility, 
is still a terra incognito, or rather aqua incognito, 
to all but a few Hudson Bay men and official 
Notes From the Field 
