In the course of my recent journey from Montreal to Nipigon, via the Canadian Pacific Railway, I desired to see the whole of Lake Superior’s wilds by daylight, and accordingly instructed the porter, when I retired at North Bay, to awaken me at Chapleau. The attendant was prompt, and after a good night’s rest i was ready for sightseeing. A hasty toilet and I repaired to the dining car to enjoy a tasty and appetizing breakfast, which I prolonged past any reasonable time, taking in the wonderful and grand scenery through which the train was passing.

   From Chapleau to White River (1) is the most desolate and barren country to be found on the whole Lake Superior Division (2), that is, while it is desolate to a degree, it is at the same time sublimely grand and awful in its rocky grandeur.

   The men who pushed a railway through such difficulties were bold and energetic, almost past belief. But with time and unlimited money, much, ah! almost anything can be accomplished.

   The train was no sooner clear of one heavy rock cut, than it plunged into another in the most bewildering way, and one has about figured it out in his slow brain what persistent blasting in one particular place it must have entailed, before he is rushing through another cut more stupendous than the one previously contemplated.

   Notwithstanding the wild grandeur of rocks upon rocks yet here and there the train crosses some small, calm, deep river suggestive of romantic canoeing or winds along a succession of falls and quiet pools that reminds travellers of speckled trout and cosy camping places. In some of the great declivities formed by the surrounding mountains nestle picturesque ponds and lakes where one could remain perdu for a length of time, if not for all time.

   Here and there we passed through extensive blueberry patches just coming into bloom and with the eyes of an old hunter I read them to be favorable places for bear.

  The still hunter for bear could, with a good pair of glasses, from the high rocky levels that border these patches, pick up Mr. Bruin while partaking of his favorite fruit; then with his knowledge of stalking would with due patience, be the possessor of bear claws, and steak for supper.

   From the tops of some of the lofty bald mountains in view from the car window a man could bring into the field of his glass any moving thing for miles around. Once Bruin was located it would be a simple thing to work up into close range. (3)

   Most of this part of the country is favorable for this mode of hunting. Of course it requires a cool head and a steady nerve.

   From Chapleau to White River the country is the same as I have attempted to describe, but once past the latter place going west it becomes a better wooded territory, and at and about the flag station of Montizambert looks and is in fact the home of the red deer, moose and small game.

   I heard from a native who boarded the train at this point that great numbers were killed during the last winter.

   The number seemed so great for the consumption of the possible or apparent number of the inhabitants that I told him this was wanton slaughter. He assured me none of the meat was wasted. However, I heard all along this part of the country of many deer and moose being killed during the past winter and not alone by Indians but by whites as well. In a manner, Indians are obliged to kill for the support of their families and as long as they waste not, cannot very well be punished for killing food on their own native hills that they look on and consider a bounty from the “Kitchi-Manitou”, but with the whites it is different. In many instances when they kill a large animal they take the hides and some choice pieces of meat; the rest remains to rot in the forest.(4)

END NOTES

1  Extract from website: ” William Van Horne picked the perfect spot for the division, a tiny spot he referred to as Snowbank. It may just have been a C.P.R. work camp in 1885, but by 1886 it was a modern rail town, with a deluxe station house, fine hotels, and an ice house. Also needed was a stockyard to feed and water the livestock that regularly traveled through.” Credit White River Library. T.A. Reynolds also neglected to mention White River’s claim to fame, a thermometer stuck perpetually at minus 72 degrees Fahrenheit, and a monument to Winnie the Pooh  ̶  oh wait! our bad! that happened long after 1908!

2  White River and Chapleau as well as Schreiber were key CPR settlements, divisional points, each with associated passenger station, telegraph office, bunkhouses and family dwellings, cookery, , a roundhouse and turntable, repair shops, a water tower, a coal tower, and an extensive yard with sidings and spurs.  Divisional points were located about 125 miles apart. To the east of the community was White River Subdivision, which ran to Chapleau. To the west was Heron Bay Subdivision, which ran to Schreiber.

3  A still hunter is a hunter who stalks or pursues game on foot. Reynolds describes using binoculars to spot quarry during a still hunt.

4  Since 1892, hunters et al relied on a 31-page digest called Ontario Game and Fishing Laws along with a network of enforcers to determine violators. The public could purchase the pamphlet for 25 cents. In the 1908 annual report  of the Game and Fisheries Department, this item appears:  “3,886 carcasses of deer were carried by Express Companies, being 406 less than carried by them in 1906, and 576 more than they carried in 1905. Of course this is not one-third of the number killed in the Province during the year, when we consider those killed by Indians, and settlers under permits. The reduction from 1906 is due to the decrease in the number of non-resident licenses issued in 1907, compared with 1906.”

(Continued in Part 2)