810 
[May 27, 1911. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
In the International Game Reserve 
By H. ANTISELL ALLEN 
T HE State of Minnesota and the Province 
of Ontario by mutual arrangement set 
apart each an equal amount of land for 
a forest and game reserve; Minnesota, the 
northern portion of the three eastern counties; 
and Ontario, the land bordering thereon which 
included Hunter’s Island. The famous old Can¬ 
adian canoe trail, on which the Canadian Gov¬ 
ernment spent $35,000,000. runs through this re¬ 
serve from Superior to Winnipeg. 
On May 28, 1910, a party of six left Minne¬ 
apolis for a trip through the aforesaid region. 
We went by the Great Northern Railway to 
Duluth and then took a Duluth & Iron Range 
train to Ely, the terminus of that line. There 
we found the sponson canoes and duffle which 
we had expressed from Minneapolis. Ely is one 
of the great iron mining towns of Minnesota, 
and each of the mines has a great hill of the 
hematite ore piled up awaiting shipment to the 
docks at Two Harbors. After dinner we en¬ 
gaged two drays to transport ourselves and our 
impedimenta to Winton, a lumber town on Fall 
Lake four miles from Ely. Winton is the real 
starting point. The afternoon was spent in 
breaking in three members of the party who 
were decided tenderfeet at canoeing. 
Next morning we took breakfast at the lum¬ 
ber camp cook-house and started on the nine- 
mile paddle down Fall Lake to the outlet into 
Newton Lake. Before making the portage we 
caught enough walleyed pike in the rapids for 
dinner. The portage is about one-fourth of a 
mile long, and there is a well beaten path used 
by the fish company which operates a chain of 
nets along the International boundary and which 
has small tugs on Fall. Newton and Basswood 
lakes to transport their catch to Ely for ship¬ 
ment to Duluth. 
At the Newton end of the portage there is a 
bear trapper’s cabin built of logs. Its solitary 
occupant was not at home, but there was a pile 
of traps outside the door as evidence of his oc¬ 
cupation. There was also a small garden con¬ 
taining radishes, onions, lettuce, etc., which was 
well fenced in to exclude the deer. Having 
made the portage, we started down Newton 
Lake to Pipestone River, a beautiful stream 
connecting Newton and Basswood lakes. A 
portage must be made here, as the stream has a 
considerable fall. There is a short path used 
by the Indians, but as we did not know about 
it, we followed the path over the bluffs which 
is used by the fish company, and it is a back¬ 
breaking one. Not having yet hardened our 
soft city muscles, we found the work sufficiently 
strenuous to require a rest after our exertions 
and therefore decided to camp in a glade 150 
feet above the river. 
Four-thirty the next morning found us at 
breakfast, for which we had excellent appetites. 
At this time we met Frank Savoy, the bear 
trapper whose cabin we had passed the previous 
evening. He was waiting for the fish tug to 
come down to help them across the portage. 
We inquired as to the fishing and he told us 
that he had the previous evening and that morn¬ 
ing caught with rod and line, 157 walleyed pike. 
This will give some idea of the quantities of fish 
in those waters, and as the water is very cold, 
the fish are much more gamy than those further 
south. Here we entered Basswood Lake. This 
lake is thickly studded with rocky islands 
covered with noble pines. It has, however, 
many large stretches of open water which in 
high winds are dangerous—one party we heard 
of having been delayed four days by on-shore 
winds. Some idea of its size may be gathered 
from the fact that it has 1,500 miles of shore 
line. 
Down Basswood we paddled about six miles 
to a portage across a neck of land into Big 
Basswood Lake. This portage saves about 
twenty miles paddling which would otherwise 
be necessary by continuing north in Basswood 
around by Government Point. This portage is 
an easy one of about 300 yards. A point in our 
travels that occurs to me is that no special 
mention is made of our meals. This omission 
is intentional, as they were so frequent that our 
itinerary would look like a series of menus were 
each described in detail. When about to em¬ 
bark after making this portage, a canoe sud¬ 
denly appeared around a nearby point, and as it 
approached, proved to contain an Indian and 
his sixteen-year-old wife. They landed and the 
girl at once lifted a bundle from the canoe. 
The buck raised the canoe to his head and they 
were off across the portage, not, however, be¬ 
fore the cameras had clicked twice. The speed 
and smoothness with which they moved made 
us city dwellers sit up and take notice. 
Proceeding on our way, we paddled south, 
then east. Passing the hoist at the end of a 
four-mile logging road which takes the cut of 
a lumber company operating in the lakes south 
of the boundary from Basswood to Fall Lake, 
we then turned northeast, coming into the Big 
Basswood. There was a heavy northeast wind 
blowing, and the waves coming into the canoes 
nearly swamped us. This was our first taste 
of rough water, and as we used 17-foot sponson 
canoes, we found we could go in rough water 
where ordinary canoes would be impossible. 
Although heavy to carry across the portages the 
extra weight of these canoes may be put down 
as good life insurance. After crossing this lake, 
we reached the headquarters of the fish com¬ 
pany situated on a small island just inside the 
United States line. According to the informa¬ 
tion received there, we could follow the Inter¬ 
national line which is blazed and could easily 
distinguish whether in the United States or in 
Canada; for, in the latter the forests are entirely 
untouched, while in the former everything is 
stripped down to bare rocks. Paddling three 
miles further, we camped on the Canadian side 
in a grand forest of pines. This was probably 
the most beautiful campsite we had. The pine 
needles were fully two feet deep and had to be 
dug away to that extent to get down to bed 
rock for our fire. 
After an early breakfast next morning, we 
loaded the canoes for the last lap to Prairie 
Portage at the east end of Basswood Lake, 
passing many islands heavily wooded with pine. 
A deer was seen swimming across an arm of the 
lake, but too far away for a snap-shot with a 
camera to be effective. On an island close to 
the portage, there is an encampment of Indians. 
These Indians are not on a reservation, but are 
Canadian Indians outlawed by that Government 
on account of their active participation in the 
Riel Rebellion, and they are now living along 
the boundary on the American side. At Prairie 
Portage is a cook house belonging to the lum¬ 
ber company operating around Snowbank Lake 
to the south and maintained by it for the log 
drivers and steamer crew who tow the logs 
down to the hoist. This portage is a short and 
easy one over a path well beaten by the log 
drivers and is a link in the Canadian Govern¬ 
ment canoe trail. There was a crew of drivers 
here when we passed, and they were the last 
human beings we saw till we reached this point 
on our return journey. At the head of the falls 
here we had some good sport landing some 
very large great northern pike on our light cast¬ 
ing rods. They afforded excellent sport, being 
very gamy and frequently exceeding three feet 
in length. Entering Birch Lake, we followed 
the south shore its full length, about five miles, 
to Carp Portage, which takes one to American 
Carp Lake. This is the western boundary of 
the lake trout fishing. Standing on the high 
bank of the stream, about thirty feet wide, which 
joins the lakes, we could see myriads of fish of 
several varieties—it is a marvelous sight and 
one that many fishermen have never seen. 
There were several that would weigh from 20 to 
40 pounds each. We had been having fish on 
our menu so regularly that we made only a few 
casts to find out of they would bite—they would. 
The way from American Carp to Canadian 
Carp is a tortuous channel through a maze of 
small islands, and is difficult to find, and from 
here on, to any but experienced woodsmen, the 
need of a guide is imperative. Canadian Carp 
is in Hunter’s Island, the circumference of 
which is over 300 miles and which can be 
circled through chain after chain of lakes whose 
shores are clothed with forests of pine and 
cedar—primeval and solitary beyond compare. 
We had no guide with us and depended on our 
compass and sectional map of Lake county, 
Minnesota, which showed outline only of 
Hunter’s Island and the lakes which bound it. 
We lost our bearings after entering Canadian 
Carp, and taking a wrong channel, went several 
miles out of our course, finally winding up at 
night at a dilapidated trapper’s cabin with night 
and a storm approaching. The cabin, after a 
cursory examination, was unanimously pro¬ 
nounced impossible, as although apparently 
long deserted, we feared that a sojourn therein 
might prove otherwise. There were some old 
tepee poles still standing near on the only 
cleared space and around these we wrapped our 
tents and spent the night—the only wet one on 
the trip. 
With the first faint streak of dawn we were 
up, and after an excellent breakfast, started on 
the search for the lost channel, which we were 
successful in finding, and after a paddle of about 
five miles through splendid scenery, we reached 
the head of Canadian Carp Lake, where is lo¬ 
cated Merritt’s camp. This is a prospector’s 
camp abandoned seven years ago, and is an 
ideal sport for headquarters for lake trout fish¬ 
ing, as one can reach from here many lakes in 
