VOL. LXXXIV 
FEBRUARY, 1915 
No. 2 
Some Virgin Canoe Cruising Waters 
In the New Hinterland of Northwestern Quebec Lie a Number of Unknown Lakes and Rivers That Offer 
Much to the Live Canoeing Enthusiast 
By S. E. Sangster (Canuck) Special Commissioner for Forest and Stream 
HIS is not a description of 
canoeing possibilities that is 
likely to prove of much real in¬ 
terest to the arm chair class of 
canoeists, but rather is for 
those with the essential red 
corpuscles in the blood—the 
man who seeks new routes into 
the virgin unknown. Incidentally, like virgin big 
game territory, such canoeing routes are becom¬ 
ing mighty scarce on this continent, but in this 
new Height of Land Country of Northwestern 
Quebec now accessible, both the big game dis¬ 
tricts and the splendid going, paddleways ac¬ 
tually do exist and are worth a long trip to reach. 
I indicated briefly in the last number of 
Forest and Stream the moose and bear areas I 
explored here last autumn, and how excellent 
were the prospects found for such game—so good, 
indeed, that modern, cosy hunting camps are be¬ 
ing established for sportsmen visiting the Bell 
River and Coffee River sections this autumn. In 
a recent letter from Dr. A. R. Warner of Cleve¬ 
land, Ohio, one of the real cruising brotherhood, 
he says, in referring to my recent descriptions of 
this new hinterland: “Evidently the country is 
very similar to that just south of the divide and 
the new railroad, and I can attest that all you 
wrote of its game, its wilderness, of the fish and 
the beauty are the gospel truth.” 
I might add that Dr. Warner is an old cruising 
visitor to the Upper Ottawa waters, south from 
Grand Lake Victoria. 
From the point where the Bell River, coming 
north from the waters above the Height of Land 
at the head of Grand Lake Victoria, crosses the 
new National Transcontinental grade, 180 miles 
east of Cochrane, one has a choice of several 
routes going sonth, as well as those north, or 
rather down, the Bell towards James Bay. Two 
specific cruises travelling southward might be 
given, viz.:— 
(a) From Bell River Crossing (Nottaway 
Station) up stream (south) some io miles into 
Obaska Lake, which lake is some twelve to four¬ 
teen miles in length. From the southern end of 
this lake a run of eleven miles on the Sleepy 
River brings one into Simeon or Simon lake, an¬ 
other body of water four miles long in itself, 
but including its extension which is really the 
same lake, it is about twelve to thirteen miles in 
length. About three and one-half miles down 
Simeon Lake, the route turns north and east into 
Sifton Lake, which in turn leads east out into 
Garden Island Lake, where the route points 
south again through a stream unnamed, into 
Mitchi-Manitou Lake; down this lake a run of 
about eight miles brings one to a portage that 
leads into waters that are really the Upper Ot¬ 
tawa feeders. To this point from steel at the 
Bell Crossing it is approximately forty-two to 
forty-five miles and the trip can be continued 
right through to Timiskaming; or 
(b) Following No. i route to Simeon Lake, 
but instead of going northeast to Garden Island 
Lake, continuing straight south about nine miles 
to a lake with an Indian name (unspellable); 
thence in turn by a stream, or rather river, fif¬ 
teen miles long (good going) into Kawastagula 
Bay, the northeast extension of Grand Lake Vic- 
71 
toria. From here to the Hudson Bay Post on 
the lake itself (Grand Lake Victoria) is some 
twenty miles, the entire distance from the Notta¬ 
way Station being approximately eighty-five 
miles. From Grand Lake Victoria one can con¬ 
tinue by direct route southward to Lake Timis¬ 
kaming and the steel, or he can swing east and 
north by the Kanimitti River into the feeders of 
the Ottawa that lead directly into No. “a” route 
and back to the “put in” point. Likewise “a” 
route can be continued for return by retracing of 
“b” waters back to the new steel. 
(c) At Hurricanaw Station (this being some 
forty-eight miles west of the Bell waters) one 
can go south a distance of six miles into Okikeska 
lake and seven or eight miles down it into Askik- 
waj lake; from a long arm about six miles down 
this stretch on the western shore a two mile 
portage carries one over into Newagama lake and 
this, four miles north and west, in turn leads into 
Lake Kewagama. Just what Newa and Kewa 
mean I am not certain; “gama” in all these lakes, 
such as Shabogama, Kewagama, etc., simply is 
Wood Indian for “lake,” thus “Slhabogama” 
means “ Duck lake,” “Akigama” being country 
of lakes, etc. 
From Kewagama one directly strikes the Kino- 
jevis river waters that lead right through to Lac 
des Quinze and Timiskaming, a route described 
in Forest and Stream of December 12 last. This 
is a long route, but can be undertaken by a party 
who have at least three weeks available and do 
not mind fairly strenuous “going” in places. 
The northern routes from Bell River Cross¬ 
ing include, first, the through trip of some 250 
