506 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 24, 1910. 
now visible, and the true channel between, was 
clearly defined. Where the stream itself was 
shallow, in a current one could get out and 
walk awhile, and thus lighten the canoe, since 
wet feet do not count and a dry charge is al¬ 
ways kept on hand to be put on when camp is 
made. 
The river was Well worth while. Red Pine 
and Burnt Lake are gems, and amply repaid 
us for penetrating sixty miles from the railroad. 
At our northernmost camp beaver swam past 
our island; howling wolves could be heard at 
night; we got nearby views of a fine buck and a 
doe; we picked a gallon of blueberries among 
fresh moose tracks on an island whence we 
watched a red deer feeding along the lake shore; 
and caught a large dace in the rapids, and trout 
in front of camp. 
On a certain day of rest and gladness we 
skipped across eight portages on the way south, 
and camped again by the table we had built on 
Otter Slide. That made it easy for Ezra to 
meet his next patron ’on the day appointed, and 
the City Girl and I camped all alone on Canoe 
Lake just to show how well wte could do it. 
We made a trip on over to Smoke, and picked 
up a big one on the old trolling ground, thus 
joining our northern cruise with the southern 
one, our first. The City Girl insists that on 
certain days in these trips it blew, and rained, 
and was forty degrees cold. The diaries say 
so, too. But I remember only that Algonquin 
is one long summer glory, and am preparing 
to go again. 
Early August last year brought us disappoint¬ 
ment in the frustration of our plans to attend 
our first A. C. A. meet at Sugar Island, but 
when, instead, we were enabled to realize our 
hope of seeing Temagami, the unspoiled coun¬ 
try. we felt that this time defeat had some con¬ 
solations. The Cobalt country is easily reached 
nowadays, and calls loudly to the canoe cruiser. 
The steamer is waiting when you have closed 
your pleasant dealings with the Temagami cus¬ 
toms officer. You will be very glad to receive 
the money you have deposited with him when 
you return, for financial surprises are in store 
for you. Our boy, Harold, put on his cap and 
was ready to step on the boat. I was glad he 
had a can. for it was quite enough to have to rent 
tent and blankets for him, and pay a larger 
steamboat fare than is announced in the com¬ 
pany’s booklet. 
The next day found 11s camped amid the 
islands and beauties of Lady Evelyn Lake, and 
long ere this, all petty annoyances were for¬ 
gotten. Everywhere, we have come over and 
across the great archaen rocks, the bedrock of 
our continent, which give this country its lakes 
and its ruggedness. At the northern end of 
Lady Evelyn we were on the great highway 
into the Gowganda district, but the red-eyed 
bass do not mind that, and they absorb all our 
interest. All through Temagami we came into 
occasional touch with the miner’s feverish ex¬ 
citement. It did not wean us from our fun on 
the water, on the portage and about camp. 
Then, too, the chase for the agile grasshopper 
was too absorbing to allow any time to worry 
about the chase for silver. Those bass do love 
grasshoppers—or anything else that will squirm 
a bit. Around the lake hotels they are not 
biting as well as formerly. “Of course, it isn't 
fished out or anything like that.” said Harold; 
“I guess they’re just tired of looking at the 
baits!” _ 
Nothing but gruesome accounts of the Mac- 
Pherson Lake and Sucker Gut trips came to us. 
Then a bit of northern weather descended on 
camp, and for three days treated 11s to a grand 
symphonic roar of forest, wave and grinding 
rock. That was great: it satisfied. But a rattling 
paraffined tent is not in tune with the symphony. 
If you think you are something of a weather 
prophet, do not risk your science in Tema¬ 
gami. “The queenly month of indolent repose” 
went out with a coating of hoar frost all around 
us. Finally we portaged across the island, em¬ 
barked under its lea and got out of Lady Evelyn 
on a narrow margin. 
On down through Diamond Lake, we had 
some shelter, the maps knew more about the 
LOADING THE CANOE. 
portages than did Llarold, and on Wakimika 
next morning we saw more frost. The portages 
into Wakimika from the north, carry one well 
up along great bluffs, and are interesting. Out 
of Wakimika a winding river is followed, and 
then finally comes Obabika, the peerless. On 
its northern arm halfway down the eastern 
shore, is that perfect camp ground you have 
been looking for. It is on a point among tall 
red pines on clean gravel with a spring of cold 
water nearby. There are bass all around. 
Gulls nest on the rocks in the lake, in front of 
camp. You will like them, for you have seen 
but little bird life up here. 
Temagami Lake itself, with its fourteen hun¬ 
dred islands and great arms, is a vast cruising 
ground, but I would not miss seeing some of 
its smaller neighbors. Those to the north and 
southwest are the favorites, but the whole coun¬ 
try is on a vaster scale than Algonquin and 
means longer days and harder work. 
A comparison of the Algonquin and Tema¬ 
gami reserves, both of which are now attract¬ 
ing increasing attention as canoe cruising 
grounds, will be of interest. While the former 
. A 
A LUNCHEON LANDING IN TEMAGAMI. 
is more easily accessible to tourists coming via 
Uttawa or ueorgian Lay, Temigami is the more 
convenient tor us of the central west and south, 
who naturally pass through loronto. Ontario 
glories in at least five splendid districts of lake¬ 
land, all of which offer unique attractions to the 
canoeist and camper. i he iVluskokas and 
Kawarthas have felt too deeply the devastation 
of civilization, and these districts are related 
geographically and for cruising advantages to 
the Lake of Bays country, very much as Algon¬ 
quin compares to them, and Temagami to Al¬ 
gonquin. Each is wilder and woodsier than its 
neighbor on the south. One cannot err in tak¬ 
ing his duffle into any of them. The particu¬ 
lar jewel of the Algonquin reserve is its wealth 
of wild life. There is a great fascination in 
seeing a living growing beaver dam with water 
rising; in counting the number of deer you can 
see in a day; in hearing and seeing the numer¬ 
ous loons and ducks; in hearing the howling of 
wolves and in having jays, chicarees and par¬ 
tridges for company on the portages. You can 
see as many moose here as anywhere. Then, 
too, the lakes average much smaller and the 
portages easier than in Temagami. This means 
that you are far less likely to be windbound— 
one of the banes of the “place of deep water.” 
Lake trout fishing is as good in the smaller 
reserve as in the larger, brook trout being but 
little in evidence in either, while the peerless 
bass easily carries off all the honors for Tema¬ 
gami. In this reserve he is found everywhere 
and is generally hungry; in Algonquin he is 
found in only a few of the southern lakes. 
The fascinations of Temagami are its bass 
and its glorious timber. It is a treat indeed to 
go where the painful devastation of the lumber¬ 
man is not in evidence, where down wood and 
dead wood all around the shore and stumps and 
scarred hillsides are unknown. That is Tema¬ 
gami! There is nothing in Algonquin, for in¬ 
stance. to be compared to the pine groves 
marching up the steep hillsides at the narrows 
on Diamond Lake. It is alpine in its grandeur. 
Nor has Algonquin anything to equal the 
rugged wilderness of Devil’s Mountain, or the 
distant majesty of Maple. But you will need 
the balni of this natural glory to heal the wounds 
of spirit you have received in your dealings with 
the powers that be in Temagami hotels, stores 
and steamboats, and the more nearly you go 
absolutely independent of these, the better off 
you are. In Algonquin, mine host is also the 
outfitter and you will suffer far less at his hands. 
Guides charge more for their services in the 
northern district. Adequate maps of both 
regions are available and make it feasible to 
dispense with a guide—if you can do all the rest. 
Since our first trip, the City Girl and I have 
developed many changes in our outfit, but all 
are not improvements. She has become a 
duxbak and highboots lady, but still wants her 
tennis shoes in a dry camp. A tanalite wall tent 
has replaced our 9x16 wagon sheet tent, but it 
is noisier and stuffier and feels unsociable when 
you touch it. A small aluminum reflector oven 
is a real comfort in baking and in keeping 
food warm, replacing the nesting milk pans in 
which we baked on earlier trips. A five-cent 
toaster and broiler is as useful as a frying-pan. 
A small operaglass and a camera are kept handy 
in a leather valise in the canoe and pay well 
for their carriage; so does a thermometer. A 
one-dollar acetylene lamp has great possibilities 
in camp, but candles answer perfectly. We al¬ 
ways avoid the paraffin ones and get the stearin. 
These give more light and know how to behave 
in company. We carry a small saw and nails 
in order to introduce such modern improve¬ 
ments as dining tables at various camp sites. The 
City Girl does hate to eat and mix bread on 
the ground, even on our oil-cloth table cloth. 
The great things in our provision list are such 
staples as corn meal and rice, five kinds of dry 
fruit, raisins and almonds for deserts, cocoa 
mixed at home with malted milk and repacked, 
brown or maple sugar (for syrup), prepared 
biscuit flour, milk powder for baking, some 
evaporated cream and. best of all. erbswurst 
(pea soup dry) and Knorr or Lazenby soup 
tablets. O. E. Fischer. A. C. A.. 5801. 
