2-982-539 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sporting Scenes in Canada - Escoumains River: a Salmon Pool, 1858. 'Those [rivers] most familial to the determined angler are the Saguenay, a mighty river in itself, with many a tributary; the Escoumains, the Godebout, the Moisie, and the Mingan. The territory through which these rivers run is at present in the possession of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, who...derive no inconsiderable profits from their nets at the mouths of these rivers...[Here] you can pick up an Indian to attend you with his canoe, and in the capacity of gaffs-man, in which latter art they are peculiarly expert...I send a Sketch of the Escoumains, once the very ideal and perfection of a salmon river, but now devastated by savage and civilised man...On the last day of my sojourn there, too, did not certain children of Belial proceed to the erection of a sawmill and its inevitable dam?...When proper action, however, has been taken by the Legislature, these dams will have to be provided with a sufficient slide, or "apron," for the passage of the fish, and then once more may we pitch our tent by the shores of the pleasant Escoumains and other shady streams'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.