MUSKOKA SKETCH

—BY

IK, [, LTOI, B, L 1 1, D,

EDITOR SIR W. R. HAMILTON'S "ELEMENTS OF QUATERNIONS,"

* i

Author of "Scenes from the Life of a Planter's Daughter," " Dippings from a Diary," Descrip- tions of Muskoka in ttie Atlas of Page & Co., of Chicago, and in the Pamphlet published under the sanction of Crown Land's Office, Toronto. Formerly Immigration Agent for the Ontario Government..

PRICE - 25 OEttsTTS

All Rights Reserved,

Printed and Published by " Times Printing Company," Dresden, Ontario, Canada. 1884. The EDITH and LORNE PIERCE COLLECTION of CANADIANA

Queen's University at Kingston rf*->

TO THE READER.

You need rut expect an elaborate treatise on Muskoka.

I have prepared for you a sketch of men and things, but mainly of men.

No attempt at classification, or arrangement, has been made, other than a general adherence to the order of sequence of time interrupted oc- casionally by the intrusion of matter omitted "in situ".

If you wish further news as to the sporting or farming inducements of the district, you can enquire from me (stamp enclosed for reply), through the mail. See also my descriptions given in the Muskoka Atlas (of Page and Co. Chicago), and in the report of Messrs Kirkwood and Murphy, pub- lished under the sanction of the Crown Lands' office, Toronto.

Those who can tell Muskoka bear stories without stretching, and any who can give Muskoka fishing incidents without lying, are requested to write to me at once, so as to prepare fresh matter for the second edition. Address

W. E . Hamilton, Editor, Dresden Times. Dresden Ont. Canada. P. S. Be sure to put Ont. Canada, unless you wish your letter to go to the German Dresden. Jver since the Free Grant Act was tion to walk through a prairie blizzard in

falls and ravines, and having addition tatoes in, till I had saved up a year's

al attaactions of bears, wolves and t"a leaves and floor dust to clothe the beavers — such was my first dim idea of rock. This worried me a good deal the Canadian Highlands, as of a land and I read aud re-read the govern- only needing a few centuries of action ment circulars, and McMurray's and poetry to become the Mecca of pamphlet again and again, without the tourists of the world. getting peace. I was determined to Theu the practical side turned up go, and like all intending emigrants, with equally alluring fascination. H re was judging between the Pros, and was a chance to become a landed pro- Corns, with a strong bias towards the prietor of one huudred acres free grant. former. In this state of perplexity, Just fancy owning, in fee simple, and stro.ling akn2 Queen street, being absolute monarch of over four Toronto, I saw in the window of a millions of square feet of the earth's little fat Dutch druggist, who owned a surface, to say nothing of the uu- Muskoka farm, a huge round red beet. know miueral treasures beneath. True Nothing like it had I ever seen even were a few preliminary conditions there at horticultural shows in England. A house, 16x20 feet, had to be erected, My last scruple vanished, conquered and fifteen acres cleaned in five years, the latter stipulation of course mean- by a root, and I made up my mind to ing only a little gentle exercise, to seek the Northern wilderness of milk, drive away laziness. The drawback potatoes and honey, at the first con- of cold winters never gave me a mo- venient opportunity. This did not oc- ment's treuble. I had braved the cur for some time, but I made a move snowstorms and cold .-naps of the in thediiection of my future home, by Eastern Township-, nod felt mvself migrating to Meaford, a very enjoyable frost-proof. When some of my Toronto country town, tenanted by friendly, friends, with ur-Ufted eyebrows, asked sociable citizens. Among these was me if I intended wintering in Musko- the noted Bill Hurley. I disguise the ka, in somewhat the SHiue tone as if name, but those who know him will they had heard me express my inten- recognize the description. Bill was MUSKOKA BKBTOH. s

hunter, fisherman, trapper, shanty- courage, and carried him out of his man and dock laborer by turns. watery bed. Another Meaford celebri- When his bar bill ran 'up to an amount ty I shall call Hamyl. He was a vet,, that made Boniface shut down on cre- so celebrated according to his own ac- dit, Bill would sell a grave lot on ac- count, that when passing the farm of count, and was the only toper on the owner of an ailing horse, the peo- record who kept a private tally-book ple a'ong the road would shcut out, to check the score. Hurley had y flamy 1 is coming," and drag him in a nirrow escape from a ro- by force to prescribe for the fourfooted mantic death, during the midnight patient. blackness of a nocturnal thunderstorm. I happened to have my university He had been indulging in a few pota- hood and gown in my trunk, which tions, and towards midnight, sallied attracted the landlord's blooming forth with a vague intention of sleep- daughters, and at their request I put ing in an untenanted building former- on the Academicals in the sitting room ly used for marble works. In the of which the window blinds were so blinding rain, and aided by occasional closed but tbat Hamyl, who was out- lightning flashes, he trudged along the side, could see me. Next day, he sidewalk, miscalculating the position called Mrs. J., my landlady, for a ^ of a jog in the road at the bridge, the private interview, and told her that I fence guarding the approach to which had been removed. In an instant Bill was a Catholic priest in disguise and

7 had fallen into the river, but by one of We knew it, for he had seen me in my those streaks of good luck which often priest's dress. The same academicals to favor topers, he lit into a shallow proved m great source of mystery place, and not feeling his damaged some agricultural Americans in a shoulder, calmly reposed on a smooth country town in Michicgan. They bowlder, which served for a pillow/ could understand the square covered He tried to work out the problem, as cap and the gown, but the black silk to whether he should su^ fhe pump- hbod with its white fur lining, was maker, who as he believed removed unfathomable, especially the bag per- the fence, or the town of Meaford. taining to it. At last one of them hit on The mental eflort exhausted him, and an explanation which seemed to satisfy he fell asleep. N^xt morning, in the the crowd. "I guess that's were he grey dawn, some passing fishermen, puts the collection after he has got from the battlements of the bridge, through with his lecture." dimly traced the outlines of what to If the reader has pardoned these their superstitious eyes, seemed a digressions, be may now imagine me marine monster. However the sup- nine years ago in the fall, on board posed Merman groaned with such a the Waubano, bound trom Collingwood human moan, that they plucked up to Parry Sound. An agent for a MU»X€>*A SXBTCH.

Toronto fur establishment, aud a bur- "at the back." Even where this good ly North 6f Ireland Dynamiter were back land was invisible, you the only other passengers of whom were always tola to believe in its ex- my memory retains any traces. I do istence, just as the unseen side of the not use the word Dynamiter in its moon may be shapely and level, modern sense. The gentleman —Mr. through what we see is barren and Fulmen will do for his name—was pock-marked by past volcanoes. Here thoroughly loyal, and an agent to is absolutely necessary, without going introduce Dynamite for blasting pur- too deeply into geology, to give the poses into the Parry Sound district. reader some understanding of what I showed him one curious fact about kind of rock crops up in Muskoka, by the Dynamite, that although a lump which name, I mean the whole district

of it would not explode, but only burn including Parry Sound. The Musko- like damp powder, when touched by a ka rock is mainly "gneiss," which con-

match, yet it went off like a flash, tains quartz, mica ai/d feldspar, the when the rays of a sun glass struck three elements of granite. In fact

it. gneiss is granite crumbled to pieces, and then reconstructed The voyage to Parry Sound was by nature, iuto the rock short and very enjoyable. The same differently arranged, the gneiss being Christian Islands ("Faith Hope and stratified or built up in layers. Sometimes these once Charity," according to the naming of parall- el planes, probably through the up- the old French missionaries) and other heaving of the earth in ancient times woodland gems set in the placid bosom are twisted into all kinds of shapes, of the Georgian Bay, were diarming but the contorted in the extreme. The harbor of Parry laminae are laid uni- Sound was land-locked, and capable formly, one over the other, like the of receiving vessels drawing 18 feet leaves of a book which is squeezed and with anchorage close to the wharves, crumbled, without being divided. From although the mill sawdust was begin- the wearing away of the feldspar, ning to reduce the depth of the harbor. the soil gets plenty of potash, and a From an agricultural standpoint, certain amount of lime is supplied by Parry Sound seemed to consist of 70 the crumbling of a mineral called per cent, of rock and 30 per cent, of dolomite. Here and there there are yellow sand, but here a glimpse of a rocks of crystallised limestone yield- great fact was impressed upon raw, ing a magnificent lime for building that you must never trust your eyes purposes, very pure and capable of in the Muskoka region. There was taking five parts of sand, with the excellent land further North and as to result of a strong mortar. The na- any particular lot, however rugged the tives however, did not under- frontage, there was always good land stand the right mode of burning it* MUSKOKA SKETCH.

Parry Sound v;as a very different either boldly in broad daylight or place from what I had imagined it to snreptitiously rowing across the har- be. 1 looked for a dull village of log bor over its moonlit ripples, but in shanties, but instead, I saw some either case, to consult the landlord of excellent stores including one where the Carrington tavern as to the best five clerks were busily engaged. There plan of striking cuttings of pinks. were also some very large mills, The visitors hid in the shade of friendly notably one operated by J. C. Miller, pines, if Mr. Beatty, of whom they M.P.P. He and Beatty seemed to be seemed in mortal dread, was seen in the two kings of P;«rrv Sound. Beatty the distance. The most striking in- was a teecotaier, of the pronounced stance, which 1 saw of Mr. Beatty's kind. When he sold a lot he intro- power was at an I. 0. G. T. evening duced temperance clauses into the entertainment, at which he appeared conveyance, of the most strigent na- in full regalia, and when some of the ture. I don't remember the details unruly village youths gjt up a side purchaser very accurately, but the of show oi' their own, so as to drown the not to sell or a Beatty lot was bound recitations, Beatty just said, " I wish liquor during his in any way traffic in our young friends near the door would life and the lives of Her Majesty and not be so demonstrative," and funeral of the Royal children and grandchil- siienct, unbroken by a sneeze, pre- dren, and a year and a month and a vailed. great day after the decease of all these 1 had picked up, from an Eng- perao.ua. The limits of Parry Sound lish newspaper, tir; mistaken idea village were thus under a absolute per. that Mu&koka was peopled wholly, by soual pronibition, so far as the liquor English laborers, who had risen to traffic was concerned, the barter of a independence on the free grants. I pig for its equivalent in whiskey being soon found that the district was full forbidden. The village became thus an of men who had held most excellent interesting study for temperance legis- positions in the old country, retired lators. Across the river, however, army officers, professional men, and tavern flourished as a part of the a capitalists. With one such settler nucleus of the rival village, then I chummed at Kirkman's hotel in the called Carriugton. "Going across the Sound. He was from the fashionable bridge" was. then looked on as a sus- quarter of London (England), and picious act, in a teetotaler, and equiva- having no very definite aims in life, lent to going out of a concert to "see other than banjo-playing, amused him- a man," or in plain words, to "take a self by firing with a revolver from an horn." There were, however, a sur- upper window at the clothes line, prising number of teetotal florists in hoping to bring its precious load to the Parry Sound, who visited Carriugton, ground, but sometimes piercing mys MUSKOKA. SKETCH.

terious feminine garments, much to some scale, receiving a sum of cash the discomfiture of the landlord's for me and paying it out as I gave comely daughters. He and I used to orders on him. chat in the sitting room about London I dovetail these notes on Parry soeiety and congenial topics, till the Sound rather out of sequence of time, exhaustion of the wood in the stove because they will interrupt the story froze us out. One evening, while in less here than elsewhere. Let me go the full flow of talk, an apparition, back : I had no sooner jumped off the from the adjoining bedroom, into to steamer on to solid land when up comes which a great crowd of shautymeu " happy Jack." I did not know him were tightly packed in sleep, startled from Adam, but he evidently knew me, " us, saying, I'll call my mates, so you and all about my plans as .veil as I did shut up or tight." Another night, myself, "Are you Mr. Ignotus, the with the mercury condensed into the gentleman who is going to take up land spherical glitter of the bulb, a terrific near McKellar ?" Utterly petrified, at report woke up every inmate of the this astounding penetration of my house, and Mrs. K. rushed out pale as design, I began to think how the a ghost and too thinly clad for com- wizard could have got the cue. Only fort. Everybody cross-examined every- with the captain, the fur ageizt, and body else, we were suspected as being the Dynamiter, had I spoken while the last up, but the noise was from coming across from Mcaford. The the the sitting room, and we were fur-man had told me with suppressed asleep irt our several bedrooms, when awe, that the credit of the Parry this roar, more terrii.ie than thunder, Sound Lumber Co. "was unlimited." I roused the awe-struck family of the had nearly talked the Dynamite agent host. A regular Guy Fawkes search to death, and all on the chemistry of # for concealed explosives followed, but nitroglycerine, of wnich he seemed in vain, aud we all went back to bed, profoundly ignorant, but to none of not to sleep, but to wait, for the next this trio of worthies, had my native crack of doom. Morning revealed the modesty allowed me to reveal my msytery in the shape ot the mutilated ambition to become a landed proprietor banjo,which had been strung above con- in Muskoka. Yet "happy Jack," not cert pitch and had cracked bridge and only knew the last fact, but was right all by the intense frost. Only one other about my intended destination beirg thing do I want to say just now about near McKellar. Duriug an instant of Parry Sound. The post-master I speechless astonishment, I mentally found to be a pearl among P. M's. photographed Jack as being two yards He often opened the office at 11 p.m. to vertically, with broad shoulders, swing- give mo a registered letter, and acted as ing athletic stride, pock-marked face, mv banker, on a small but trouble- regular features, unkempt hair, and MUSKOKA SKETCH.

ocular restlessness which bespoke one large sloping field crowded with who had drained macy a midnight villagers and Indians. The latter bowl and would a^ain. The whole happened to stand dangerously near thing was so weird and strange, that to the explosion, but were too dignfied I became a fatalist, resigning myself to do more than walk away with state- to Jack as to my destined guide. "Are ly step, while the heavily built and you Ignotus, sr., ?". "Yes". "Well, rather obese Dynamiter developed in- I'm going to-morrow evening to credible activity in running over logs

McKeliar, and I'll give you a lift in my and stumps. The Dynamite was a waggon, and take some of your trunks. decided success in blasting rock. "I assented with a slight groan, and in Afler supper, as a precaution, the use the interval enjoyed a fishing ex- of which will soon appear, I bought pedition, in which the Dynamiter two tallow candles and two bunches of figured conspicuously, since after some matches at Beatty's store, and awaited failures, he threw a water-fuse into the the coming of happy Jack in stern re- harbor, with a Dynamite cartiidge signation. Soon the lumbering and attached, after which and the lapse of springless waggon, with two horses, a few minutes which gave us a chance whose principal endowments were to get out of reach of the explosion, a skin, bone, moderate muscle and

peculiar sub-aqueous thud was heard, patience, arrived, and I jumped in. then an enormous beehive-shaped wave Away we went, smoothly at first along in the middle of the glassy water, and a good bit of road with pretty glimpses then a multitude of stunned and seem- of water through the tieeson the right. ingly dead fishes of all sizes and Soon darkness and trouble overtook shapes, enough to dine our party of us. The road was now narrow, crook- seven at a hearty meal under the pine ed, and actually studded here and trees, and leave plenty over for the with stumps, which it was possible, and Indians. After getting back from this just possible, to dodge. After coming pic-nic, and glancing at the beautifully to a deadlock several times, and wedging situated village erected by Beatty for the wheels against these obstructions, the use of the exhorters and visitors to the back strap broke. Here my pro- the annual camp-meeting, I witnessed vident purchase of candles came into the experiment of the Dynamiter. An use. It was raining, pitch dark, and auger hole was bored half through the our only neighbors were bears, which

side of a living pine tree ; the ex- last named amiable pets, whatever plosive cartridge, with ignited fuse books may say to the contrary, do oc- attached, was introduced, and away casionally eat people, when berries are went some twenty feet of that part of out of season, in Muskoka. I lit my the tree above the cartridge. Then candle, and must have presented an experiments on stumps were tried in a intensely ludicrous figure to any pass- —

8 MUSKOKA SKETCH.

ing owl. I had an enormous Panama on the jjreat North road near here, that on, which I brought from the a splendid lot, of cour&e you'll find it isthmus. Crouching down, so that looks a little rough on the road front, the hat became an umbrella to keep but there's some splendid land, beau- the caudle from the rain, and with tiful clay loam, at the back/' Ignotus: ?" my knees covered with tallow drip- "Is it in the market Jack : "Well, pings, I threw the light so that happy it is aud it isn't, you see.'' "Ignotus: Jack saw what part of the harness "How?" Jack: "Well you see, of had broken, and after consultation course you can go to Parry Sound with a teamster behind us. he started and aet located for it, but poor iittle away irtto the bush, ana returned very Moily" —here his voice faltered and soon wilh the bark of some peculiar with a swift lateral movement of the tree, something like the Wikapee of sleeve, he wiped both eyes. Ignotus, the Province of Quebec. With tins, atfected sympathetically, "Restrain he soon made a cord aud mended the your feelings, who's Molly ?" " Ah, harness. On we went again — bang ah, she's my neice— she's a claim on went the wheel against a stump. I the lot —not a legal claim of course, lit the candle again, but a gust of rain but a gentleman like you from the struck it, and we were in hopeless old country is not like these Yaukies darkness. Jack, who had owl's eyes, you've some honor about you, you soon found the seat of the trouble can feel for her Herman located for and mended the fracture with the that lot. that very desirable lot, he same bark-string. This thing at last won her yonug affections. Herman,

7 became monotonous, and we left the the hunter, w on them. He left, he w iggou in the road. I think I got is gone, no one knows where. Per- to McKellar in the hind waggon. I haps the red tooth of the bear has know I did not ride on horseback, but mangled his shapely neck, but before

I may have walked. However, I re- he left he bequeathed the lot to joiced when 1 saw the tavern at poor little Molly, that she might McKellar. Jack's modesty had pre- locate tor it when of legal age—poor vented me from learning that he was thing its the only property the chid the redoubtable owner of the building, has—would you take it from her ? all but two end rooms tenanted by a though its little good it will do her grass widow, of whom more anon. poor thing. She's eating her heart Next morning Jack talked straight out fretting for Herman." "Why do business, thus : "Mr. Ignotus, you're you want me to locate for the lot then, going to take land up land near Mc- if you want to keep it for Molly ? Kellar, you're at McKellar now, I There are thousands of acres to be had don't want to presume to dictate, elsewhere," said I. " Oh, but you see but 1 know a very fine free grant lot the poor thing might part with it for a MUSKOKA SKETCH.

" - ahem-consideration, How much ?, allel lines through it. The valleys there "I don't know, come over and we will formed might be very rich, see her." Away we trudged some though crumbled debris of rock dis- seven or eight miles, and entering a log guised the fact somewhat. I was house, saw Molly, a fine looking hand- mainly interested in finding out the prospects of forming it. some girl, by no means consumptive, a road through It was quite clear that if you could and looking as it Herman's departure once get had sat very lightly on her feelings. an ox-waggon into any one She referred us to her mother, and end of any of the valleys, you could gracefully poising herself, carried out travel to the other end, but the pro- a swill pail to the pigs. Mamma was blem was how to get crosswise from

all straight business, and said $35. the road to one of the valleys and then "It's a swindle," said Jack indignant- to the other. I confesed to myself ly—"Come on Mr. Ignotus, we'll go that blasting or tunelhng through the home, we can get plenty of better lots." rock, was the only resource. How- Away we walked, Mamma stopped us, ever I waited for Jack's return to get "What will you give then?" "$20," engineering light thrown on the subject. said Jack, and not a cent more." He came, pooh-poohed my puzzle, Finally $25 was fixed on, as the exact and said that I must not have found value of Molly's broken heart plus the true corner post of the lot, as if so,

the lot, and next day we went down to I would have seen that nature had Parry Sound, having previously picked happily left a low swampy level which up another man besides Jack to affa- by proper corduroying could form a davit a variety of things about the lot, pathway from valley to valley. We such as the amount of rock and swamp sallied forth to the land, and Jack very the in it, and other particulars. I got speedily evolved corner post, for located at the Crown Law office, with- which I had in vain hunted, out of a out any trouble, and handed Jack his vast lile of over-lying brushwood. did not for this $25, for Molly, getting a receipt, bar- Though he charge ing her her heirs and assigns from any operation, I may remark that hiding claim in law or equity on the estate. corner posts and finding them again I at once returned to McKellar, while for a consideration, used to be a com- Jack brought the material for a cheap mon pastime with some of the Muskoka cotton dress for Molly, anc spent the natives, when time hung very heavily balance of the $25, very much to his on their hands. own satisfaction, "over the bridge." By this time, Jack had become very Pending his return, I made a private familiar, and called me no longer "Mr. and somewhat more minute inspection Ignotus," but "William," a mode of of the lot. It was a gore lot with fraternal address, first adopted in his various ridges of rook, running in par- moments of a spasmodic inspiration, 10 MUSKOKA SKETCH.

teams to remove it in time to but which afterwards became stereo- clear the road for traffic. Over the road is the typed. only way it can fall." I agreed with Jack suggested that I had better let a groan, and he, to cheer mo up, him the job of clearing five acres at suggested an adjournment of the work, $20 per acre, of course expecting ms to for a partridge-hunting expedition. follow the example of other greenhor?is, Away we went, preceded by a mongrel and advauce him $10, to get fionr, dog of some peculiar Muskoka bre<-d, "not that he wanted it, of course, only yet a uog which knew a thing or two that flour was specially low-priced just about partridge, and had a capaciu for then, and it would be all the same to living on nothing and avoiding por me of course, and I would be so much cupiues. The cur soon treed a covry money ahead, when I came to make of partridges, which allowed themselves my final settlement, of coarse." In- to be shot one after the other in a mc st stead of doing all this, for I was getting stupid way. We passed over somo my eyes rapidly opened, I got him to beaver meadows—lovely little prairie clear one quarter of an acre, at the gems, most grateful to the eye with rate of $14 p. a., payment to be made their bright green relieving the when the work was done, and not a monotonous darkness of the pines, and cent to be advanced for flour. Jack also by their flatness pleasing the eye winced, but seeing my features sternly tirei with continual hills, rocks and set, drew his sleeve pensively across ravines. Safely ensconced in Jack's both eyes as he had done when open- free grant shanty, we made soup of ing out the story of poor Molly's vanish- the partridges, but the meat was so ed sweetheart. Having done this, he fresh, that it defied ordinary teeth, it enticed various boys, by promises of was a refinement on the tortures of chewing tobacco and other forbidden Tantalus. Here we had delicious luxuries, to help him to underbrush huge plump white partridges cooked and limb, and I followed, axe in hand. to all appearance, and yet o( a hard- Jack hated work with a holy and per- ness intermediate between white ash fect hatred, but being forced to labor, and hickory. However we were as the next best thing was to do as little as hungry a,s bears shaking their shaggy possible. Hence he became at once used sides after their winter's sieep. The sore beset to contrive excuses to avoid Muskoka climate serves a notice to chopping a huge pine standing in the quit on dyspepsia, indigestion, bilious-

quarter acre and which towered tc a ness and all their numerous cousins.

height of 120 feet while it was four The whole tribe has got to go, and a feet through at the base. Thus he h .althy stomach and ravenous ap- plied me with irresistible logic. "If I petite take their place. When I lauded

cut that tree it will fall over the road, at Parry Sound, I loathed fat. Now I

and it will take five men and two could make oily Western pork, even MUSKOKA SKETCH. 11

without beans, disappear as quickly as Sound. I found that I had jnst missed

a shantymau. After a few clays of bar- it in my selection of a lot ; an quarter

baric life, dining off logs, and drinking of a mile further North, and I should water out of swamps winch though have been off the pine ridges and on dark was pure being fed by springs. I the clay loam. When in his company thought I would spend no more money I drove to Whitestone lake, I noted a on the lot, and deemed my experience marked improvements in the soil, and cheaply bought, compared with the in the standing timber which began to losses of others Just then I met consist more and more of maple and George Kelcey. He had been driven beech, which the clearings were larger, out of England by lead, not by a bullet and the rock less visible. Whitestone but by lead poisoning or painters' colic, Lake consists of two bodies of water a canal, which is the curse of his trade. The connected by narrow natural doctor told him as he lay on his sick- easily crossed by a bridge of the bed, that he must quit his busiuess or "Great North road," which went on prepare to tenant a very narrow and beyond the lake to the North Pole for perpetually dark house in six months. all I know or cared. Anything pret- toe situation of Not having any taste for the under- tier than Kelcey's house at near this bridge. It takers' style of architecture, he left for the narrow Parry Sound and was settled on an would be difficult to conceive. His excellent block of land, with a better boat house was built near a rock of crystallized limestone, to farm at Whitestone lake, still further rounded a to the North, and about 30 miles dome-like top by the weather, and

North of Parry Sound. From where he shining in its translucent whiteness lived the unearthly howl of a wolf was like Parian marble. We took boat often heard in the far off Northern here, and rowing through the narrows wilderness, and was reechoed in vari- with a lovely evergreen clump on the ous tones by the pack as they circled left, soon emerged into the lake, near some lake in search of prey. which there was a noted runway where Kelcey was a good sample of a suc- twenty-five deer had been seen at one cessful settler. He Jiad picked out two time. On the young trees by the g^od tracts of excellent clay loam, free waters' side, could be seen the line from any quantity of stone sufficient to marking the highest places where the interfere with ploughing. He had deer could reach when browsing from thoroughly learned back woods work of the winter's ice. So abundant were these animals, that their bones being all kinds, ould log, hew and chop with the best of them, and was a good knawed by mice into sharp points^ rendered walking in "corner man" which is saying a great the bush very un deal. Eesides this he traded largejy in pleasant for the moccasined Indians. furs, and sold oats to Beatt.y, in Parry On the margin of the lake [ saw a 12 MUSKOKA SKETCH. piece of land, gently sloping to the them went to sleep quietly enough, but water, some 60 acres I think, in area, he the got up with a crowd of strong free from stone or rock, all tillable adjectives in his mouth, 'Til make except four acres of which two could the boss give us covering or I'll tear be reclaimed by drainage. For this I the house down." Then, lighting a took preliminary steps to re-locate in match, and seeing our mouutain of the Crown lands office in Parry Sound, bed clothes, he shouted at me, "com- but got tired of the solitude of the rade, comrade, come, come, shell out country and left it in the following some of these blankets." By vague March, for Bracebridge. I stayed with hints of a revolver being under the Mr. Kelcey during the winter, and the pillow, I quieted him down, and he diet was in marked contrast to the went back shivering and swearing. It traditional fat pork, with 01 without was very selfish, I admit, but the deli- beans, so common in settlers' houses. cious eight inches of wool were too Prime beef from througbred cattle, good to be given away. delicious vension, chicken and turkey I got some curious glimpses into of the best, home cured hams, all Indian life, while at Kelcey't. Their vegetables which could be grown in the mode of trading is peculiar, and a country and stand cellarage, with ex- storekeeper who does not understand it, do no business cellent tea, cream and eggs—such was can with them. into store the diet of Ignotus. They come the with otter, The only approach to an adventure, fisher, musk and other furs. Th« which I enjoyed, in the house, was one storekeeper asks the price. It is out- night when several teamsters, in the rageous, and such as to kill all chance employ of the noted lumber merchant, of his re-sellipg at a profit. He must not grumble or try to higgle, big Dill, of Byng Inlet, (so called in but must contrast with "little Dill," of Brace- figure up the total amount which the bridge), were benighted and I shared Indian asks for the furs, and then my bed with one of them. The night finding out how much flour, tea &c, was very cold, and we had a mountain the dusky one requires, he must charge of clothes on us, which with blankets, such prices for these goods as will coverlids and an English rug, must equalise the furs so as to leave him a have been eight inches in thickness. profit. Both parties are then satisfied There was another bed in the room, having got three to five times the and after we had fallen asleep, up current prices of their wares. came two teamsters, shivering, and One instance of the Indian's coolness quickly undressing. Over their bed when his life hangs by a thread— was one thin blanket. I am afraid I Kelcey was going home, and along a must plead guilty to having stripped piece of corduroy road across a swamp. the bed before they came up, One of It was just light enough to make out MUSKOKA SKETCH. 13

a distant outline. At the edge of venisou was hung up out of the dogs' the swamp, he thought he saw a bear reach, beautiful deers' heads with crouching and he levelled his rifle on symmetrical antlers were lying on the supposed Bruin. Anothei second the ground gnawed by the canines. and a dead Indian would have been The venison when cut up ready for ripe for a Coroner's inquest' but in market, was wrapped in deerskins, that second, the Indian stood erect and with the grain of the hair so arranged threw up his hands. Mark the saga- as to slide along without catching the city of the savage. If he had shouted, snow, and so hauled some twenty

Kelcey might have not known where miles, fco Parry Sound, by Indians, the sound came from, on account of the harnessed singly each to his load. The echoes of the rock, and taken it for the amount of victuals which one of these encouragement of a brother sportsman. Indians can put out of sight passes He knew that when he held his hands belief. One day, K. asked a Penetan- out, K. could distinguish him even by guishene Indian, not pure bred, to the dim light from a bear. have some dinner. He had features Two parties of Indians, frelonging repulsive through disease and the to different tribes, but friendly to each hostess involuntarily gave him a look

other, were in the district, and the first ot disgust, which he inwardly noticed band left a record to guide the second and after eating about four heaping as to the whereabouts and route of the platesfuls of turkey, beef and ham, got former. This was all shown on a sheet up with a satisfied grunt, looking at of white birch bark, pinned to a tree, her, chuckling and muttering to him- and on which was an accurate sketch self, "squaw mad," after he had bolted map of the roads and lakes together enough to feed a good sized family. with marks to identify the first band, Kelcey had brains, new ideas and and arrows to show where they were energy, and among tiie improvements going. In company with K., I visited which he introduced amidst the settlers, an Indian camp in the bush. He was the practice of building roofs of traced the path by minute tomahawk house with a slope of at least l£ to notches at intervals on the trees. The 1, instead of a square pitch, as here- camp was cunningly constructed to tofore. The luxury of a steep roof, escape the biting N. W. blast. The consisted in the earlier sliding away of lent was to the S. E. of a huge the snow in the spring. One great bowlder, between which and a rock, nuisance, aggravated when stationary the fire was flaming so that the tent eavetroughs were used, was the form- enjoyed not only its direct heat but ation of great cakes of ice at the that reflected from the rock. They bottom of the roof, and caused by were actually warmer in the bush than alternate thawing and freezing of the we in our hewed log house. The snow. This ice was hard to break off 14 MUSKOKA SKETCH. without tearing the shingles and in the select the crossing place, as otherwise spring the water backed up against it if too narrow, the runners would get and leaked through the ceilings of the locked, and if the up grade was too house. steep, the sleigh could not get on again to the The snow was five feet deep on the road without being unloaded. level during a large part of this winter, The road itself, that is the beaten part and of course of indefinite depth in of it, was so narrow, that there were only drifts. Travel was sometimes quite three or four inches sometimes of blocked. Before Dill, of Byng Inlet, margin to come and go upon, and if planned a journey to the South, he the horses made the least slip, down sent some of his lumber teams to break they went perhaps seven or eight feet. the road, and the settlers watched During this journey from McKellar, their arrival, and followed them with one of them broke off the road and their ox teams. There were no snow after desperate plunging and being un- ploughs as in the lower Province, to hitched from the sleigh, instead of clear th» way. There was just one getting up, rested in the hole which he narrow track, which some horses seem- had made in the snow as if he was ed to know by instinct, and it was going to die there. At last he jumped easier to get off it than on again. I up and very sensibly made a bolt for travelled the twenty-three miles of home Fortunately I stopped him, but road to Parry Sound several times he seemed to dread the hole where he through blinding snow storms, and got had struggled, and it was some fifteen so hardened to the weather that I seem- minutes before we could get him hitch- ed frost-proof. The description of one ed to the sleigh again. When we got of these trips may suffice. The first to the Junction (of what with what I seven miles were comparatively easy, never could make out unless of misery till we reached McKellar, owing to the with company), we expected a good road, being well travelled by farmers dinner to warm us up, and got nothing going to that village for their su[ plies. but a little withered badly cooked dry From McKellar, fivemiles to a place, pork with some still more wi etched tea, the name of which I wish to forget as and a poor fire. Still, anything seem- it recalls an abominable dinner and ed better than facing the storm and I cold house, but which I think was cull- did my best to coax K. to stop for the ed the 'Junction,' was gone over in five night, but he was determined to go on, hours. Wheu we saw a team coming and as I thought if it went on drifting, towards us, K. and tho opposite team- that I would run less risk of starvation ster got out, and began tramping the in Parry Sound. I went with him. A snow to an easy down grade from the loaded team had passed through half road, so that the sleighs could pass an hour before we started, hut all each other. It required judgment to traces of its runners were completely MUSKOKA SKETCH. 16 covered by the snow. Between this spine directed itself towards the island miserable Junction and the Sound, of St. Paul. Meanwhile piteous sobe were strewn along the roadside, furni- and groans for help came through six ture, lumber, &c, which the teamsters feet of snow with inarticulate and had thrown off to lighten their load. muffltd appeals to which he yielded The long straight stretch of road near so soon as he could get the laugh- the Sound, gave a full scope to a keen ter out of his system. breeze, which nearly used up our re- In March, 1875, in company with maining powers of holding our, and Slade who was on his road for Eng- thankful were we indeed when we gut land. I left Parry Sound in a into Kirkman's and using our remain- splendid sleigh, driven by fast horses ing strength to fill the stove, became (or at least by horses who wanted to gradually thawed out* and fit for be fast when the road let them) to supper. Bracebridge. We passed through some Ludicrous incidents cropped up for very deep cuttings in the snowdrifts travellers sometimes, that winter. A where the lumbermen had shovelled man up country had advertised his our roads ami stopped at Kosseau, at wife in the Parry Sound newspaper as the house of the inevitable Pratt. Him having left his bed and board, and in I had heard off long before as an in- the usual legal form. She retorted corrigiblejoker, and one whom it was with a similiar advertisement and ac- necessary to pay off in his own coin. ?" cusation against him, and picked up 'How deep is your house said I. her personal properly, consisting "A quarter of a mile.', "It stretches mainly of a feather bed, with the in- like your bill when a traveller's leav- tention of taking the .stage for Parry ing.'' "One for you, are you his- Sound. Siie missed the stage but got torically acquainted with an inter- a lift from an friendly teamster, and change of idaas which once took place sat perched on tne top of a pyramid of between the governors of North and ?" oat bags. She was tall, heavy, stout South Carolina I owned to a dim and elderly. The fashion of crinoline memory of the matter. We adjourned still lingered. The road was narrow. to another iv;om. After this came The horse plunged. Away shot Mrs. dinner, including a superb bit of steak, Blank, flying eastwards through the suberby cooked, a gem to be set in the air as if discharge! from a catapult. culinary memory of the future, then Head foremost, she pitched into a we made a third adjournment to smoke snowdrift. The astounded young team- real Havannas. Could it be possible ster saw nothing but the outer ciicle that we had got into luxurious civ- of a crinoline and a pair of Balmorals, ilization again ? It was toothsome to with the toes convulsively pointing recall that horrid Juuction with its towards Arcturus, while her invisible loathsome tea, bv wav of a dark back- 16 MUSKOKA SKETCH. ground, to bring out the beauties of message, as facetious, immediately this gem among hotels. Pratt, the went to a good deal of trouble in pre- landlord, is an American, and with the paring sixteen of his best bedrooms for far-seeing speculation of his country- the visitors. When he saw McDonald men, picked out this beautiful site on walking up from the hotel wharf with Lake Rousseau, for a tourist hotel on a yelping pack of sixteen harnessed a very large scale. His inveterate dogs, his feelings were too strong for joking proclivities have made him some utterance, other than the expectoration enemies, but I always found him very of violent adjectives. pleasant and reasonable in, his charges. Bracebridge. Once, among his guests, was an Eng- When we got into Bracebridge, we species, a were cheered and surprised by the lishman verging on the Dude # grade Dude, in fact. "Aw have you ?" sight of a fine brick block, but depress- began he to Pratt. "Yes, said the ed proportionately to find it all shut landlord. "We have everything here up, as were also several other buildings which you can call for." Inwardly in the village, and as I landed on the and long reflected the Dude, determin- verandah of the North American hotel, ed to seek for something not to be had. oie end of which was nearly hidden Finally he asked for a bottle of "double from the other by a snow drift, I felt Selzaw wataw"—something rarely in strongly disposed to take the stage next the cellar, even of English hotels. day, and get into the outer world of "Certainly," said Pratt," called the railways and great cities. Of noise equal waiter and soon the genuine No. 2, to that of a large city, we had enough, Seltzer appeared. It was from a from a fifty foot water fall in the vil- consignment sent by mistake from lage; from another still higher one, four

Toronto, but the sight of it caused the miles off, in certain states of the wind,

Dude to wonder and collapse. Some- the sound came as if of a vast train of times however the joke was the other cars. Sleep was difficult at first from way. D. F. McDonald, a Government these causes. On inquiry from Markle, wood ranger, had brought sixteen dogs the landlord, I found that the village to Bracebridge, on their way to Parry was just beginning slowly to recover

Sound, t,o be used by Bowers with dog trom the reaction following the sleighs in the following winter to com- McMurray boom. McMurray had vey the mails across the ice to Algoma. a great deal of the live go-ahead He telegraphed Pratt, "Prepare bed- yankee dealing about him, and in ad- room accommodation in your stables dition to running a newspaper, roal

for sixteen guests." Pratt knowing estate, and other "irons in the fire," that Government parties and other he kept a general store in this brick tourists of note often sought his hotel, block which lie seem to have built and taking the "stable part" of the regardless of expense, with very large MUSKOKA SKETCH. 17 plates of glass in the windows, high of the stone cutters muttered over their ceilings, a cashier's box in the central swiftly blunted chisels cannot blast it, part of the store, and a private office will last till the crack of doom. Side- 24 feet long, with lofty glass partition. walks were laid down, and many other The building was about 66x60 feet. betterments which 1 fofget, There was with a very large one storey addition a great deal of enterprise among the at thb rear for a printing office. Five business men, one proof of which was clerks were employed in the store, and given when Bsardmore was in the the proprietor had a splendid villa, village prospecting for a site for his beautifully located on the residential tannery. He was wavering between part of the village. All this remember, Braeebridge, Penetanguishene and in a backwoods hamlet, which when Graven hurst, the great object being to he flourished, had a population equal get near the supply of barK. I was to that of the famous light brigade, present when a meeting of the before they were "stormed at with leading merchants and village council- shot and shell." Mac became finan- lors was called to see him, and in an cially "busted," and his downfall hour or so after the idea was broached, knocked the bottom out of the institu- a rough draft of the agreement was tion of Braeebridge. The village, sketched and the enterprise captured however, recovered and made wonder- for Braeebridge. There was as a ful strides before I left it in 1880. A general thing much of bustle and life fire engine was purchased, and a fire- in the village, owing to the lumber company established and uniformed. traffic, and the large numbers of Two tanneries were running, to one of emigrants who stopped on their way which $2,000 bonus and ten years way to locate on free grants, or to pur- exemption from taxes were granted. chase farms. There were four good

This latter used up 1,000 hides from hotels in Braeebridge, all making Ohiua, South America, Nicaragua, money. The "British Lion" seemed to &c, in a fortnight, cost some $30,000 be the aristocratic place to rest. Here for buildings, and required over 3,000 the Dnke of Manchester, after having cords of hemlock bark per annum. walked up the hill, pursued by the A brick school house was built at a brass band who here determined to cost of some $7,00C, and a brick R. 0. serenade him, actually slept. The brick block was rumpling of the sheets the next morn- Church i another erected and a most substantial lock-up ing showed that notwithstanding and registry office. In the two last, his exalted rank, he went to bed like hard burnt brick of a very peculiar ordinary commoners,and the couch was clay dug in the village, was used, with fondly glanced at, and shown to the basement course of Muskoka stone, furious, as a linl^ joining Braeebridge

hard as iron, and which if the curses to the House of Lords. A long list of 18 MUSKOKA SKETCH.

distinguished visitors including Lord in Diaper and after leaving Muskoka Dufferin, might be given, and hence was made Her Majesty's consul general anything so commonplace as a mere M. for Poland. He was covered with P. P. or Toronto alderman, frar&ly medals for campaigns in India and stirred a ripple in the social worlcl of elsewhere, and received the Victoria the Muskoka capital. There was cross. Another settler also before cultured society in BraceThidge. The my time was Sir William Colles, who Anglican incumbent, Rev! T. S. Cole, located on the Muskoka river. Across was one of the graduates of Cambridge, the gulley which ran through my lots, England, and author of an admirable lived Mr. G. Eddiugton, son of Col. pamphlet on the teaching of geometry. Eddington, Argyieshire, and we used His mother-in-law, was on the regular to signal each other by flags, when wo staff of the contributors to the Atlantic were at home. Eddington spent five Monthly, and author ef a noted book years in Demerara, and had a most on Muskoka, published by Routeldge, interesting journal of his travels, illus- London (England). The Brownings, trated by graphic sketches of Indian old Newcastle (Eng.) of an family from life and tropical scenery. His uamo especially J. B., were a highly cultiva- receives honorable mention iu a* paper ted family and thoroughly posted in read before the Royal Geographical modern literature from Herbert Society in London, and from the pen Spencer's theories is the latest novel, of Mr. Flint, who with him was one of Aubrey White, the Grown Lauds agent the few white men, except Sir R.Scliom- was gifted with a phenomenal memory berg, who visited the Rorhima moun- and could tell the names of the tain, which is a square faced rock of sitting members of all the parliaments great extent, 1,000 feet bitfii, on the great and small of Canada, their ante- top of which vegetation and probably cedents and their constituencies, to- inseots if not animals, different from gether with the dates of the various those in any other part of the earth by-elections since Confederation. W. are believed by scientists to flourish. E. Foot, the fishery inspector, was Eddington, I believe discovered a feasi- from Dublin, where he had filled an ble path to the top, which so far as we important position in connexion with know has never been pressed by hu- one of the leading railway companies. man foot. He was an accomplished musician, Portions of the "Merchant of Venice" and amateur actor, having in the lat- and other Shakes} erian Dramas were ter capacity inherite'd histrionic talent acted in the village so as to satisfy from his celebrated ancestor of tlie severe critics, though, of course the same name. Before my arrival, Col. stage was denuded of those costly (afterwards General) Maude was scenic adjoints, which metropolitan another Muskoka settler, who had land theatres enj^y. There was ajso an MUSKOKA SKETCH. 19

excellent chess club in which a near there to fructify an hundred fold— Muntz, the for relative of Mr. member "some have money and no brains, the noted player. Birmingham was a men who have money and no brains, To turn for a moment to the dark were made for men who have brains side of let us sketch the Muskoka Jife and no money." From this time, he

land swindler. ,, .,. avoided v , ^ so far as he could, all manual A landshark's own definition of him- wo*k which he hated with a holy and self is a "philanthropist, whose heart perfect hatred. He saw the rich harvest

is bursting to cardiao apoplexy with which landsharks reaped without toil- affection for the moneyed settler and i-'ig or spinning, with an oily tongue as who burns with desiro to settle him in a the sole implement, and out of the happy home." LA hawk plucking a plethoric purses of innocent emigrants. He also saw that pigeon to the last pinfeather, . is the his chances of success would be swelled image which he leaves on his , custo- immensely, if he mer's mind by and by. If the victim could pass off as a veritable John Bull. be not only a green but a fussy Eng- Just in this frame of mind he accepted a chance to lishman, his doom is sealed,. Now go to Liverpool with cat- T enters on the stage of this sketch, A. tle, iand meeting all nationalities in

Shark, Esq. Heuis the leading actor. that city, he • developed bis natural

He is Canadian horn, but with a good power of mimicry, so that he could have dash of yankte-descent. In early life a father in York or a mother in he was foolish enough tp go in for Dublin, or rhapsodize on Scott's hard work, but he was a young philos- monument in Edinburgh, just as the pher, and his reading brought him victim's origin might require. Thus across the motto .of the old barons, prepared for; the work, fate landed him '•Thou shall't want pre I. want.'* How in Muskoka, where he got hold of to work practical fruit out of tnis motto, land. His unkempt and hay colored in the 19th century, was the great hair hung in bunches over a low fore- problem. He could not ensconce head indented by small pig-like eyes himself in a castle and ravage the which shrunk from ihe direct glance plains below. In the first place he of another, and over which training had no castle, and if he had, the strong h id cast an air of sleepy innocence. police of the day would nip his plans Nature had cast his features in a in the bud. Picking pockets suggested vulturine mould and beaked curves itself, but was dismissed , as .being could be detected not only in the nose vulgar, unintellectual and a highway but under the lower lip and in the to the Central Prison. Being wholly mean receding chin. Instinctively callous to the goads oft conscience, aware of the twin deformity of his ears, the maxim of the Tichborne claimant which were large flaps requiring close fell into hie mind as on //prepared soil. inspecti6n to difference them from bad- — —

20 MUBKOKA SKETCH.

ly cooked pancakes, he wore a close ping up the best lands." Shark : muffler in all weathers. Few men "Englishmen are the very men we want however have no redeeming feature, to make the country go ahead." Dis- and his teeth being while, perfect and interested bystander, to Bull, "You'd symmetrical were frequently laid bare better clinch the thing, give him $50 by the mechanical smiling muscles of to bind the bargain, of course its no a thin and cruel strip of human parch- business of mine." Bull looking at ment called an upper lip. the "snug log house suitable for a Snow is on the ground, a matter of small family," grumbles audibly, "why four feet on the level. Can such a its all full of hay." "0 yea, you can trifle stop the anxious home-seeker ? have it at a valuation, the hay crop Out he sallies, spade in hand, and is was so heavy, we had to store it in the conducted across a spot over which an house." Bull ascends to Die top of the ancient stable, with its floor never hay and looking up, says, "why there's 1" cleansed, once stood till time gave the a slate off "We dow't use slates timbers to the wood pile. The fleecy here, but shingles." "Well then there's a shingle off." "Impossible." "But veil is dug away, and mother earth I see light through a hole in the roof." appears. 'John Bull digs yet deeper, "Nonsense, its a silver and brings up a dark spadeful of soil, pine shingle, which seems downright inky, near the as we call them, which reflect light." bright snow. A. Shark, Fsq., takes "Let me look again."—Here Bull slips a handful of the real estate, He through the hay, scratches his shin on a pitch fork, and the subject drops. smells it—delicious, he couJd eat it "Where's the spring of living water," did Egypt or Illinois ever see such he asks, "you told me about inside the lovely soil ? Millions in it, only wait- house." Shark removes a loose board ing to be tickled into existence by the and shows him a pool of turbid water. plough 1 Bull smells it. The by- "But its all muddy." "Well so it is, standers smell it. Chorus : "What the children have muddied it, the little soil ?" "Fat as butter !" "What an pests, throwing clods in." Here Jake idoit Shark is to sell it !" "I wouldn't is seen tearing over the fencing on take $30 an acre for it, by thunder." snowshoes, and roaring, "stop the sale, In a stage whisper, "Tell Jake to bid stop the sale." Bystander whispering on it." A. Shark, Esq. : "No, I'm a to Bull, "you'd better be quick and man of honor, I've offered it to Mr. slip Shark the deposit." Bull does Bull at $20 per acre, and I'll stick to so, and says to Bystander, "would you my bargain." "Are you going to let a

i really feel delicate to ask you black stranger ride over Jake's head —I would you feel hurt by offering and take the best farm in the township but my you for your trouble ?" "Well from an old settler ? I wish these $10 hate taking but I'll Englishmen wouldn't come here, snap- I really money MUSKOKA SKETCH. 21

keep it for the poor." Meanwhile makes a far more luxuriant growth

Jake has come panting and cursing : than farther south. Cattle come in "Shark, you scoundrel, you promised bursting with fat, after ranging till the to sell me this land, T must have it or end of the autumn in the bush. The

I'll stand a suit on it. I'll pound you water is excellent and plenty. to pieces." Jake strips for a fight. The vigor of the debating society Bull does ditto, and orders him off was something wonderful. The dis- the ground. Jake coats himself, mut- putants, panted with hot impatience tering about unfair odds, and gets pay like grey-hounds straining at the leash, from Shark for his share of the comedy while the President delayed them by so soon as the two worthies get private- the necessary preliminary formalities. ly together. Finale: —Oyster supper at BRACEBRIDGE CONTINUED. Bull's expense, with speeches &c. Next We had in Mr James Boyer a per- 5 spring as the snow goes down, stump fect treasure of a clerk, who had re- after stump appears in the clearing ceived a good part of his training in a and the rich patch where the stable lawyer's office in New York, and suc- once stood, while the balance of the ceeded greatly to their astonishment, soil, with a little washing would make in correcting some of the long robe in good building sand. Other land- seek- Toronto in their ideas as to munici- ing incidents may keep for the second pal law as applied to Muskoka. There edition. were some peculiarities, legal and mu- Here a word may come in about the nicipal, as to the region. In a convey- soil of Muskoka generally. There is; ance, the wife had not only to bar her nearly every variety of soil, from poor dower, but to join. as a grantee. Muni- sand which is worthless without cipally, Muskoka proper was divided manure, after the third or fourth year in two by the prolongation of the following its first crop, up to rich county line between Simcce and Vic- clay loam. There is one kind of red- toria, so that one set of reeves met dish earth where the sub- soil, when in Barrie and one in Lindsay. exposed to frost and weather seems to Simcoe was the mother county for crumble into friable earth, of great pro- criminal jurisdiction, and "going to ducing capacity. As a stock raising Barrie, ' was an equivalent for "going

country, especially for horses, it has to jail." . To make matters still more some great advantages, and though mixed, the Parry Sound district proper, the autumn is shorter than the other sent no Beeves anywhere, the unorgan- parts of Ontario, they have the advan- ized districts had no reeves, councillors, tage in the spring, as the deep snow assessor or taxes, the schools in the P. saves the ground from frost, and the S, districts were inspected from grass starts growing- before it is laid Collingwood. Muskoka in one sense bare of its winter covering. Timothy meant the smaller and more Southern —

MUSKOKA SKETCH.

half of the whole region, and in P.'s, who were entertained by ihe vil- another sense (for instance as a riding) lage people, at a splendid banquet, included it all. In the ecclesiastical after which I had to make some four system of the Roman and Anglican or five speeches in reply to various churches and for road inspection, toasts, and where the Reeve, John Muskoka, in its widest sense was Smith, grew eloquent over the "mur- linked with Algoma. Judge Lount muring pines and the hemlocks," was one of the most noted men in The Globe and Mail reporters deser- Muskoka, and at one time, might be ted us and left the chronicle to the called the governor. He was of pow- local press. Among those whose ac- erful physique, and iron stamina of quaintance I very much enjoyed, was endurance. The anecdote was current Father Jamot, the Bishop of Sarepta of his having personally and unaided, (in partibus iniidelium). He was tall arrested a shantyman, in the midst of with dark piercing eyes, somewhat his comrades in the camp, when vari- foreign accent, and a long elastic step ous constables had failed ignominious- which showed that years had not ly in the effort, Through probably dulled his energies. Indeed once, well into the fifties, he had been known walking through the bush towards Lake to start the Division -Court at 10 a. m., Nipissing, his guide got lost, and the

and sit on the judicial throne till the Bishop, becoming a temporal guide as

first "wee hour" of the following morn- well as a spiritual leader, struck a

ing, without going out for any rest or course which brought him out within drinking anything, while the pleaders a few chains of the desired place of were thoroughly exhausted, and the exit. The Bishop who had promptly Clerk, T. M. Bowerman, sighed in- given up brilliant prospects in his wardly for dinner. The Judge's am- native France for Canadian missionary musements were camping, chess and life, retained the brilliant sparkle and farming, each pursued with .similar wit of his countrymen. While sleep- energy. ing at a settler's house in the bush, A. P. Cockburn, the Dominion mem- some miserable wretch cut off the tail ber, was one of the first pioneers and of his horse. The woman of the house very popular personally, even among went out in the morning to the barn, his political opponents. He may be and saw the mutilated steed. She called the father of Muskoka naviga- came in trembling to the Bishop : tion and operated quite a fleet of "Your Lordsip, they've cut"—she steamers, among which the Nipissing blushed and stammered.— He re-as- was fitted up with every comfort and sured her and asked her to go on luxury for tourists. One of the nu- "the tail of your hors6," she said,

merous excursions ,by this steamer "that is, the mane of the tail. I dou't

brought a crowd of M. P.'s and M. P. know what's to be done." He took it MUSKOKA SKETCH.

tops, smiles glorify the congregation's quite cooly, saying tHat he must sub- faces, while the secretary's pen rait unless she could make a wig for scratches like fury. "Who says $100?" the tail. During one of the Bishop's Silence again, but not so sermons, he preached in English, dead. Several had almost decided to give this sum, earnestly on the fall of our first but modesty of course kept them dumb. parents, and on that Hateful legacy of "Put Father Cody down for he's sin thus bequeathed to us. A French- $100, away, but whenever I from home, man was sitting in front of me called am if he Legase, with the accent on the last "e". gives $5 he always puts me down Another Frenchman not understand- for $10, and its a poor rule that does ing English.and catohing the sound of not work both ways," says the Bishop. the name, as he thought, repeated in A general lau

continental pronunciation of Latin, and massive and commanding appearance!,1 to illustrate the fallacy of the popular very dignified and grave in manner, idea that it was uniform, the Bishop and somewhat melaucholy, as well ho recited for me the Paternoster in might be when he thought of the Italian, and other languages, showing enormous extent of his diocese, large very marked differences in sounding enough for a European Kingdom, and the same words. Father Cody, the only ministered to (in our church) by resident priest, was thoroughly Irish a little handful of pastors, wnose and racy of the soil. I had bought salaries could not be guaranteed for a three village lots, built a small house single quarter. He often spoke to me for myself and was ''keeping batch." of the uufair way in which Algoma had The priest felt very much for been treated financially by the older lonely state, always my and was dioceses, Mid referring to his continual afraid that I would get cramps and journeys to raise church funds in die in the uight, without help. He Eastern Canada and elsewneie, he. offered to call on and iiscuss me said, "You see I am literally a beggar, points in theology, an exercise mixed and must be, unless the mission is to with I in which, becoming humility, drop." fhen the condition of the expressed my inabillity to contend people, eager for ministrations, but

with him. rabidly lapsing of necessity int:> practi-

It was a little curious that the two cal heathenism through lack of clergy bishops under whose charge, in the shocked him beyond measure. Hence Koman and Anglican systems respec- he called for volunteers to act as tively, Muskoka with Algoma were lay-readers. I proferred my services placed, were French or of French and was accepted. Accordingly I descent. conducted services at Stoneleigh,

I saw a good deal of the then Anglican Falkenburg, and Bardsville, outlying chief pastor of Algoma,the late Bishop stations in connexion with the Brace- Fauquier, during his annual visits to biidge church. In one of my the district. A bishop's work through Sunday addresses, I denounced a great such a country, is not to be done by a blot on the Muskoka farming life of feather-bed soldier of the church that time—the cruel treatment and militant, and he had his trials physical overdriving of horses and oxen. A as well as mental during his journeys. young farmer in the iu<1ience playfully Once his vehicle broke down, and he nudged his comrade, who was notorious had to walk to the nearest place of as a Lard cattle driver, and the eyes of shelter, some four miles, carrying a the congregation turned in that direc- heavy valise. He was a skilful sleigh- tion, so that I had the satisfaction of driver and could go the pace down hill knowing that one shot had struck without accident. He was a man of home, and also an illustration of the .

MUSKOKA SKETCH.

readiness of hearers to apply the pitted against another, mysterious $5 moral to their neighbor. bills put in towards the end, excite- The road to Stoneieiy;h was full^ of ments, and rush, and canvassing. ups and downs, and through a deso- This aotually inside of the church, late region. Holding funeral services and the cake on the very altar. involved more hardships iD cold They didn't mean any harm by it, weather, than any other part of my and it would have needed a long duties. The mortuary chapel was a course of instruction to show them log building with ample chances for the hideousness of the whole perform- peeping between the logs, at the con- ance. The bishop left in disgust. "He stellations by night, and no stove. could see that however they valued his When the mercury was getting cosily office at other times, they were then rolled up like a hedgehog into a ball, utilizing him as a luoky arrival to the outside was really pleasanter than "draw," just as they would utilized a within the chapel, where a mouldy first-class banjo man or Christie's corpse-like smell seemed to dominate. minstrel, to aid a money speculation The sexton lived hard by and a merry As vestry clerk, I noticed the skill twinkle could not be altogether con- with which the' Bishop managed to cealed in bis solemn features, when I bring back with his episoopal orook, called on him, as the churchwardens' those who were straying from their deputy, to give orders for a grave. He essential subject matter under discus- seemed to have mentally measured the sion at the meetings.

dimensions of any who were likely to At one church gathering, i tried to die soon, and would mutter to himself, draw him out, to tell us what many "I know he will take a fuli sized grave" were curious to know, namely whether or "she wont last long after him, so he were "high" "low" or "broad." He I better dig deep enough for two answered "I am simply a Churchman." coffins." He seemed to keep a hidden It would be a much better arrangement store of dry earth somewhere, ready if a slice of the older and wealthier to cast on the coffin at the right stage territory of Simooe were annexed to of the service, when the inclemency the Anglican diocese of Muskoka. I of the weather oompelled its perform- have already spoken of the talent of ance indoors. Bracebridge, what was true of the 1 was at one Muskoka church social village was also measurably true of the where the object saemed to be simply to whole district, as to culture. The raise money, by a^y means however crisp aud incisive snap of letters to the unscriptural or indecorous. An elec- press— the -zeal and energy with which tion cake was the chosen vehicle to attendance, often involving long travels fill the empty treasury of the Lord's through the bush,was given to teachers' house. So much a ticket, one lady conventions—these shewed a brisk ;

MUSKOKA SKETCH, mental leaven in the mass of the people. cess in skirting, without shooting, this Highly intelligent mechanics and oratorical Niagara, amused Mr. Crooks master craftsmen too, from all parts of immensely. officers of Anglosaxondom ; half pay Some the settlers were wretchedly English gentlemen's sons with incomes poor, having made bad selections of or capital, who had been in Australia land. Their trials and hardships in were the earlier days of free granting were and South America ; such men sprinkled throughout the Canadian grievous, and seed potatoes have been Northwest. dug up for food, while in the heavy

It is not to be supposed, however snow falis,the immigrant was practical- that Muskoka held no hard citizens ly a prisoner, till a crust became hard- within its ample limits. The wild- enough for snow shoes. Among ness and sparse settlement of many the denizens, might also be seen portions of the country, together with some educated families from Eng- land, delicately brought up, whose the rarity of magistrates and con- means were consumed, and in whose stables, encouraged lawlessness. I shanties, the hanging found one instance in the un-organized oat sheaves through the loose boards which lay districts where a squatter claimed a where a ceiling should have been, con- tract of four hundred acres for him- trasted in ghastly mockery with a self, relations and friends. An English- handsome mahogony chair, relic of man had the presumption to settle on their old home across the «ea. it, had made a clearance, and was shingling his roof, when the squatter Taking them all in all, there was to of and his followers, armed variously, much admire in the sturdy spirit people, ordered him off the top, and tore down the and the absenoe of grow- the shanty, so that the victim had to ling among them. Bightly or wrongly they believed great future for go baok far away from roads in the in a bush, and make a fresh start for his Muskoka, by which their children at family. Such high-headed raiding least would profit. would not be ventured on now. Physically, the peculiarly dry and The air in Muskoka, seemed always bracing climate was developing a full of politics, and during one of the strong tough hardy race. The child- teachers' conventions I had the difficult ren, brought up in a land teeming with

task in the course of my address hundreds t>f lakes, were as much at delivered before the Minister of home on the water as on laud, and lads Education, of steering clear of the thought nothing of crossing a lake iu political allusions, which were con- birch bark canoe when the white caps tinually coming to my mouth, while were madly dancing on the waves. speaking on the relations between Coming from school, the boys would journalism and education. My suc- dash each other into the drifts and MUSKOKA SKETCH. 27

emerge like animated snowballs, of man, no worse naturally than screaming with laughter. They went hundreds of others, fate threw him barefooted, late in autumn, when town into a country where the lazy element children were shivering with cold feet, of his nature was ministered to, and and in the summer, their bare h£ads the powerful magnet of srort, at first defied sunstroke. toyed with as a pastime, had drawn will an Muskoka, in the future, be him from farming work which he invaluable recruiting field, should thoroughly understood, and which his Canada evar unhappily need a regular strength fitted him for, and developed army,and in the meanwhile Reform and him into the Indian type, without the administrations at Ot- Conservative Indian's exouse of early bringing up as tawa, are alike to be censured for not a hunter. having organized a volunteer force in Drunkenness, too, which clings like Muskoka and Parry Sound, where an evil spirit to the Anglosaxon raoe, suoh excellent physical material exists whether under palms or icebergs, for its foundation. plentifully sprinkled Muskoka with One great fault in the architecture moral and physioal wrecks. In this of the shanty, was its being built with fashion did the tempter smite the the floor nearly on the ground level, temple of man's body; the Settler was so that, especially alter the sinking of leaning over his rough-hewn table, the logs, where the snow melted in the moodily brooding over the past and spring, the hard tramped path to the future ; on the vanishing light of the door, became an inclined plane to oon- first and the coming darkness of the duct into the house, water none the second. It was evening. The icy purer from the part thai $ows and blast was ruthlessly tearing away the pigs stood so often and long in* sup- few leaves which the frost had spared. pliant attitudes outside the door. Other sound there was none, exoept One cause which retarded the pro- the hoot of a passing owl. He had hay. gress of farming proper, although it Could he but sell it, he could get cash, raised local prices of produce, was the and cash mean't flour, and the want existence of lumbering on a large of it mean't hunger. But the roads scale. Many, farmers worked in the were impassible, and no work was to woods, when they might have been be had. Still he brooded, till the chopping, oil their own lots. Another tension of thought became intolerable. great temptation, to draw the free •He sallied forth into the cool air, and granter from his proper business strolled along till he heard the sound sprung from the charms of hunting, of rough revelry, from the bush tavern* trapping, snooting and canoeing. Maudliu music filled the air. Con- Happy Jack, before immortalized science said "go back,'' with solemn

. wasr'a sample of this. Not a bad sort and stern iteration. His credit was MUSKOKA SKETCH. good, and the elbowed his way to the office where I was sole occupant. I bar, intending to leave the rude crowd, tried to coax it out, but the gentle after his one glass. That glass looking creature, with its beautiful wrought a miracle. Lazarus became soft eyes, had a will of its own, like Dives. The potent spirit instantly some of the mild members of the fair changed him. He became rich, in his sex. It was determined to stay and mind, again. The tavern loafers were go just where it liked. A hint of forci- transformed into jovial friends. He ble ejection, made it show fight in a treated and they treated and he way which threatened to pi the type treated, until past, present and future in the cases and make havoc generally. were alike drowned in the pool of The congregation were passing the idiotcy which went before sodden office glass door on their way from slumber. The habit of drinking grew church. The lower part of the glass on him. The coroner was the his- was covered, and one lady looking torian of the sequel. up and seeing the large eyes of the My house was rather romantically deer looking through the window, situated, on the edge of a deep ravine while the rest of the body was hidden, through which, doubtless, centuries was almost terrified into a fit. ago, a strong river flowed. In the Once I saw an exhibition of savage winter, I had a companion, a huge ferocity which few have ever witnessed snowy owl, which had found is way —a bear just from the woods, getting from the arctic circle I suppose, and his first taste of prison life. He was was given to me by a lady friend. full grcwn, an old fighter. One eye The huge bird would fly across the had been torn out in some bygone room, dodging books and tea-cups battle. He he had been caught in a without making the Jeast sound. One deadfall, and chloroformed, after which very cold night in winter, I was coiled he was lifted into a packing case, just under a buffalo-robe, dreaming of the high enough and narrow enough to sunny south, when I felt something hold him while flattening his back. furiously shaking and striking the In some wonderful way, he had "buffalo," which I throw to the bottom managed to turn round in the box of the bedsit the lamp, and realized my before he reached Bracebridge. A narrow escape from strangulation by very strong collar had been put around owl's claws. Wild animals tamed and his neck, and to this, two thick chains untamed we're common village pets. were attached. The box was carried A pet deer had the run of the streets on the top of a wide stretch of flat and strange to say, was let alone by rock, near the bridge. He was a mur- the dogs which perhaps had a whole- derous looking bruin and glared some dread of its deadly forefeet. even through the holes in the packing One Sunday, this deer got into a print- case, at the crowd, as if he wondered MUSKOKA SKETCH. 29 which of them would make the best rific hitting of Sullivan would be as eating. A Bracebridpe blacksmith the slap of a girl to her doll. It was an drilled a hole in the solid rock, and anxious moment—the least flaw in the therein a stout iron standard was links, and the infuriated beast would leaded, so that Jumbo himseif could have been tearing some of us. The hardly have torn it up. To this iron was sound. He tugged and standard the swivels of the chains strained, knashing his teeth, and again were attached as they protruded from striking the chain, but less forcibly as the box, which was then opened, and he seemed to realize that he was only out jumped Bruin, stopping for a hurting his own neck. Then he bit moment to take in the surroundings, it savagely, his teeth closing with a and stretch himself. Well outside the snap heard afar off, and four being circle of his chain, were several men broken in the effort. Soon he changed stationed with breach loading rifles to his tactics and, as if to find some weak shoot him if it should break. Bruin spot in the iron, he turned sommer- was full of fight and it would have sault after sommersault, till the put him in the best of humor could he chain was twisted into a coil. Again have even broken someone's leg, but he untwisted it, by rolling in the otjier he seemed to see that the odds were direction and lepeated the twisting. too much against him. His one eye After some hours, he seemed to find seemed to pierce the sparkling river that the iron was too much for him, and and he sniffed the pine woods on the that he could not tear the collar off. He other side. Away he trotted with lay down, the picture of surly fury, on an elasticity, chained as he was, which the bare rock. The ostler of the hotel you gentle readei, (I hope you are managed to make friends with him, a noun of multitude), could no more so far that he could give Bruin his food realize from seeing a caged bear, than without being himself cut into sausages. you could judge the "claimant," after Still further to pacify him, a *ame his long years of penal slavery, as female bear was brought near, and she to his appearance when his tried by all arts of plantigrade endear- weight broke through the cab floor ment to console him. After sniffing in Liverpool. Faster and faster he at her for some time, he fetched her a rushed down the rock, till the chain cuff on the side of the head, which brought him to a dead halt/ Then his even by Judge Hughes' exposition of rage was something terrible. His eye the common law, would be deemed glared like a coal. Raising his right excessive, and which sent Mrs. Bruin paw, he struck the chain, now strained sprawling over the rock. The strength to its utmost, a fearful blow. Such a of these bears in proportion to their size, is marvellous. stroke ! It would have broken the Cooper, a hotel keeper in (rravenhurst, kept one which back of an ox ! Beside it, the most ter- 30 MUBKOKA SKETCH.

was remarkably tame. One day I held the dignitaries in Toronto, and chiefly one end of a hardwood rod, while with Mr. D. Spence the Secretary of Cooper held the other end. Between the department. My experiences with us we weighed 880, while the bear immigrants, though arduous, had their would then turn the scale 250 lbs., so amusing side. i shall never forget that weight was in our favor. We my first batch of new arrivals from braced against the stick held horizon- England. I was playing chess in J. B. Brewing's tally with every bit of muscle in our office. The night was dark as pitch, bodies. The bear very quietly laid and the time 11 p. m. I was called his paws on the centre and more easily from without by the ostler of one of the hotels. than I could snatch a stick out of a By the ghostly glimmer of child's hand, without exertion or jerk- a lantern I saw a crowd standing outside, ing, tore the rod from us. If I had not really sixteen adults,but to my dropped my arm quickly, my shoulders excited imagination seeming like a small would have been dislocated. This army. They stood gaping at me, as if bear was not always, to be trusted, they expected to be put into however. On another occasion a very fat situations on the spot. I saw them housed for the night, aged resident, but a good lady s man, and next morn- ing early, paid was walking arm in arm, with two them a fatherly visit. They seemed afraid that they theatrical stars, and while showing might be snapped up by a street them Bruin, the shaggy monster bear if separated, and as I went from store caugnt hold of him, though either of to store the whole tribe would persist in the ladies would have been more tooth- following that special one whom I was some eating, and dragged him to the trying to get employed. By earnest den. The amount of hunting done in work I got half of the crowd provided the district, may be judged from the for before dinner. A burly young fact that one year forty bear skins Yorkshire man had vainly were shipped from Parry Sound. The tried to get work and was much depressed by his Muskoka minks are far superior in failure. "But I on the contrary got value to those further South, and I work at once," said a little cockney saw magnificent otter, beaver, fisher about five feet nothing in bodily and marten furs for sale. height, but taller than Mount Blanc, But I must hury to conclude. In in his altitude of unlimited "cheek," accordance with a testimonial signed by which in some extraordinary way, leaders of both political parties, by the he had talked and worried a hotel the influence of and through E. F. keeper into hiring him as an ostler. Stephenson, License Inspector, I was This little atom of the great metropo- Immigration Agent for appointed the lis, by the way, was the self. constituted and got into Ontario Government, the Moses of the exodus, and the immi- orthodox of communicating with mode grants' infallible referee. He knew all MUBKOKA SKETCH. 81 about the roots, rocks, and ravines demanding a pass to another village and in exactly how many years (not many miles off) and holding the Muskoka free granter could retire up his child in his arms to emphasize on his fortune. Before night, I had his request. Whether the Englishman got all my flock off my hands, except. secretly punched the eyes of the fat a n^arried couple. The husband had baby, I don't know, but a loud squeal- been offered, when in Toronto, a good ing ensued, echoed by all the neigh- situation as a keeper in the Lunatic boring dogs, and he asked me whether Asylum, but the omiiiscient little I was going to let his child starve. I Cockney had drawn such a glowing instinctively became suspicious and picture of the wealth of Muskoka, sternly refusing him the pass, told him that he joined this batch of immi- that the interview was ended. When grants. He was an intelligent man. I saw him next, in a mouth or so, he He saw at once that some little money owned a horse and various other mat- was needed, even on a free grant. He ters inconsistent wtth starvation, and and his wife, in October, could not was conducting a thriving business. live on the future potatoes of the Another deceiver was a well dressed following autumn. He could not do young Irishman, who came into the hard manual work of any kind, and office with a very pompous stride, and manual labour was the only thing to sat down pulling an interminable li- be had in Muskoka. His sole chance brary of memorandum books out of was to get back to Toronto, but he his breast pocket. He was, according only had four dollars left. His wife to his own account, superciliously felt the terrible position keenly and squirted out iu jerky paragraphs, an cried bitterly. I had no authority to Irish gentleman of means. He was give them a return pass at the Govern- vague as to lo«ality, but said he was to ment's expense, but I did so out of my be looked at as the pioneer and agent own pocket, and was unmercifully for a number of Irish gentlemen of chaffed for my folly by friends. How- position, fortune, and rank even he ever after some months, I got all the obliquely hinted. These magnates had money refunded by the man, who had sent him to spy out Muskoka—"Was got a situation in one of the asylums there such a place as trie Magnet- outside Toronto. While there were ewan ?" he enquired, strongly accent- many splendid samples of the sturdy ing the second e, after the manner of Englishman and Scotchman, there all Dudes. "There was such a place," were some arrant humbugs also I solemnly affirmed. "How far off?" among the immigrants, whom I shall I told him. "What preparations did immortalize in the second edition. I propose to make to convey hija to it?" One of the latter class leaned over my I owned that the question had not garden fence in a threatening way troubled me. If as he confessed pos- MUSKOKA SKETCH.

sible, the reads were too bad for a his back, while we yelled at him at the top of our voices, to hurry. regular Brougham or Landau, he was In 1880, the Provincial Exhibition willing to go in some vehicle of the was to be held in Hamilton. The country. He even so far conceded, as idea struck me that it would be a to be content to travel on a buckboard. greai help to Muskoka to send an

I advised his going to a livery. exhibit there. There was less than a "What," said he, indignantly rising, fortnight to arrange for space, gather 'vou're a Gouvernment agent and make np the various roots and grain, pack, a difficulty about a paultry conveyance. forward, draw to the Exhibition build-

I'll report ye when I get back to ing from the station and unpack, sort, Toronto, and more than that, I'll house and display them. No doubt write to the Gouvernor General." I the Muskoka Agricultural Society placidly told him that I had no in- would have aided, but there was no structions to hire conveyances for time to ask them. At this juncture, well to-do explorers, or to give any J. W. Dill, a Bracebridge storekeeper assistance to any one not really re- came to the rescue, and not only lent quiring it. I said, however, that if he his wagon, but went with me himself would give me the names of those to various farmers' houses, within a distinguished persons for whom he circle of about six miles from the vil- was acting, and proofs of his mission, lage. We went day after day, hauled I would telegraph to Toronto, to see the grains and roots ourselves, loaded what could be done. He raised him- and unloaded them, and packed them self. He drew himself up very icily, for transit. Captain Harston from declined the offer, and asked me to the Ilfracombe settlment where a num- give him an order on the hotel for free ber of English gentlemen ot means board. I declined. He narrowed it had made large cleariugs, gave me a down to begging a dinner. I still splendid collection of millet and other refused, but gave him 25 cents to get grains. I collected some samples of rid of him. In the afternoon, when he pottery clay from one of my own lots, had come down to "hardpan," I was red clover four feet high from my sitting on a door step in Gravenhurst, ravine, and hops from the garden, also chatting with a brother immigration very hard bricks of a remarkable agent, when up comes the Irish dude, Muskoka clay, which rang with a bell- thoroughly toned down and hunting like sound when struck together. F. up work. We let him know that a Jarett a village blacksmith sent a set deck-hand was wanted on the "Nipis- of shoes, which was highly admired sing," and he ran off to the steamer by the Hamilton Vulcans. Fine at breack-neck speed, with all his specimens of Muskoka white oak and personal estate—a small wallet— on brick were also procured, and in addi- MUSKOKA SKETCH. 33

tion to my own samples, I was lent a bitiou authorities could not possibly collection of Muskoka maple, black accept them, since the throng of birch, birdseye and curly maple. The people would be inconvenienced by th« suitability of the two latter for veneers coutinual passage of porters convey- was recognised by cabinet makers. ing such large and bulky goods up-

There was also iron ore from Stistead stairs. All went smoothly till we got pronounced by Prof. Graft to be "al- to Gravenhurst. Here a railway most chemically pure/' ochre, and porter seemed bent on retarding things some very singular nodules of grey things generally. I showed him my limestone, found in the earth at depths authority from the railway company of from 40 to 60 feet, and in the to obtain a car. He said that one shapes of watches, eggs and globes. exhibit had already been conveyed to Of course the grains and roots were Toronto free of charge, and he did not the mainstay of the exhibit. A. P. see the us6 in a second exhibition. Cockburn, the Dominion member, had Telling him to mind his own business, very liberally given me free passage I sought A. P. Cockburn, through for myself and treasures on the whose powerful influence, the roots, "Nipissing" to Gravenhurst. The grains, &c, were boxed up in a car. Hamilton and North Western railway The car was attached to the train, but

with equal liberality, continued the either shunted off or detached and I privilege to Hamilton. The Hamilton found to my horror, that I was travel- Dominion immigration agent, Mr. ling to Barrie without my precious John Smith, had taken a deep inter- goods. Here good luck, which has est in tne whole affair, and had by often stood my friend, stepped in. A using his personal influence with the number of railway magnates, Cumber- directors, obtained for me a special land amoug the rest, were in a private position not in the vegetable and root coach with the train. Mr. Donaldson, shed but in the main central hall up- the Toronto Dominion immigration stairs, where surrounded by millinery agent a friend, of many years standing and other show cases, Muskoka had a was with the party. I sent my card to

a table forty feet by twelve all to her- him, with a line pencilled on it asking self. Delays always come at the end, him to get the exhibit forwarded. and I was pushed to the last for time. Afterwards I heard that Cumberland safely As my collection was stored on sent - peremptory orders, when they the "Nipissing," 1 paced the deck stopped at Barrie, that "the Muskoka anxiously, for I knew if they went on exhibit must go on by the next train." that night to Hamilton, that they This however I did not then know, and might by great exertion, be put in when I saw Mr. Smith next morning position next day, but if anything I could tell him nothing but that I had delaved them another dav, the exhi- seen mv car last in Gravenhurst. 34 MUSKOKA SKETCH.

Things looked blue. We walked down that these splendid apples were raised to the depot and could see nothing of in Manitoba !" "Grapes too !" "Look the car, till at last I recognized it with at that fine yellow corn !" "What great joy by a branch of hemp sticking immense oats !" Then, (pointing to a over the top. We got a Great Western stem of hemp, ten feet long), "What team, loaded the exhibit, unloaded it in the world's that." Look at that and then the tedious work of unpack red clover, as high as a man's middle !" ing, as the toiling porters brought up "Let me have two or three oi those sack after sack was gone through. potatoes for seed." Such talk was Mr. Smith's long experience in the buzzing in my ears all day. Then everything connected with agricultural hundreds were asking me about their produce was invaluable in the work of relatives. "Do you know long Jim in arrangement. A large banner bear- Perry ?" "How is Mike getting along ing "Muskoka," had been splendidly at the Magnetewan ?" "Would you painted by Shields, a village artist, mind taking a parcel to John when you and this we floated on high, while get back ?"—the said John being only large as the table was, it was well 100 miles more or less from my house. covered with roots and grains. It was I was particularly anxious that the a little early for Muskoka turnips, but 1 fall an' spring wheat sheaves should in potatoes, I knew I could bid defiance appear to the best advantage, as that to all comers, from any section of the was the supposed weak point of the continent. After the exhibit was over, district. They rested on the top of the I had some of these tubers cooked by a table and I cautioned visitors against Hamilton hotel keeper for the public mangling or shelling them. The long table together with some of my onions, armed young farmers, however paid to and the universal verdict was that the attention, but stretched forward and potatoes had a flavor which none from shelled the ears. In vain I posted up the older sections of the province could notices in English, Latin and one or reach while they were at once, of large two other languages. Shell they would. size and mealy. The onions also had One day, I got so annoyed with a per- a deliciously mild taste. The second sistent sheller, that I hit him a smart crop radishes were very soft and juicy. rap on the knuckles with my cane. I But I am anticipating. The roots had expected to be annihilated, but he took

to be looked at first by thousands, who it as a huge joke, and a large crowd of surged round the barrier, day by day, big Huron men who were near him,

lost in astonishment. 1 was hoarse laughed till the music of the organ answering their innumerable questions. downstairs, was drowned. One morn- "Is this the Muskoka exhibit ?" was ing some English sparrows, worse

asked every hour in the day till closing than the farmers, got in through the time. "What, you don't mean to say roof and would have eaten everv bit MUSKOKA SKETCH. 35

of grain on the table, but for an at- I walked, would break. Chicory and teLdant. some specimens of crops not much The Marquis of Lome inspected the raised in the Province, were among exhibit, asking questions in his usual the novelties which excited them brisk business-like way. Some red most. Opposite one corner of my table onions, fully equal to those which were two boys selling a new style of gained the first prize, attracted the braces on exhibition. I was drawing Viceroy's attention first. They were the crowds, and receiving all sorts of grown on a flat Bracebridge rock, taffy from notables. They were reap- artificially covered with soil, by a ing the harvest. Mine the glory, theirs canny Scotchman from Aberdeen, the gain. I had nothing to sell, and who thus utilized the heat giving if I had, my official position would qualities of the stone to force a crop. would have forbid the thought. They Then the Marquis asked whether the sold, and I was drawing customers hops were wild or cultivated, and I for them. The world is unequally told him that they were raised in my divided. My exhibit, though not for own garden, after which he expressed competition, received a special diplo- his high approval of all which he ma from the exhibition authorities. had seen, instructed me to send Mr. Smith, the Dominion Immigra- him a work which I had written on tion agent, referred to it in his official Muskoka, and p»ssed on, followed by report as having giving a more power- one of the editors of the London Times* ful impetus to make the district known who asked the one question whether than had been done by any other Bracebridge was the principal town in agency, and the Ontario Agricultural Muskoka. Another day. the Lieut Commissioners to if> in flattering governor, with his sword-bearing aid terms in their report. The Ontario de camp, paid me a visit, and I also Government refused to refund me one received Hon. Mowat and other cent of my outlay in connexion with members of the Toronto Cabinet, the exhibit, though they afterwards, The Hamilton, London and other as I understand, gave a grant for a newspaper gave me verv hand- display from Algoma at a local fair. some notices, and the Toronto Of course, being collected at such Mail and Globe sent report rs short notice, and within such a re- with special instruction to write stricted area, the collection did not do up the exhibit, which thev did that justice, in some branches, to in firpt class style and at full length. Muskoka which more time would have The effect of each of these city articles ensured. was seen shortly at'er their appear- ance, in the increased crowds throng- A few (?) words as to the incidental ing the table, so tightly jammed that and permanent attractions of Muskoka, I feared that the barriers, inside which and I have done. MTJSKOKA SKETCH.

The geologist has something to see country has few rivals. It's lovely there : —Contorted strata, and white waterfalls, its countless lakes, its ro- crystallised limestone, and what mantic ravines, form an ever-changing were formerly supposed to be panorama of beauty. glacier bowlders, but now con- The sportsman can find a great sidered as mineral growths, crystal- variety of game, feathered and un- lizing round accidental centres. They feathered, from the partridge to the are globular, ellipsoidal, or combina- shaggy bear. Loons and some noble tions of greater and lesser ellipsoids, specimens of tall and pink-breasted joined together, so that each compound herons are to be shot there. Among figure bears no imperfect resemblance table birds, the partridge is so very to an old English watch. A very abnndant in some localities that it fantastic form was shown by one of seems like butchery to kill them by the these little wonders which are found half dozen. The most popular plan in from forty to sixty feet below ground. deer-hunting is to divide into two

The nodule had in its lesser part the parties, of which the first follows the profile of an ape, while in the centre antlered quarry in the bush with of what represented the stomach of the hounds and drives it to the lake, at monkey #as a polished pebble ot pink- which moment they shoot it. Moose ish brown limestone. The crystallized are also shot, though rarely. Mrs. limestone is remarkable from an Stewart, of Mary Lake, aided in economical point of view, as it will take killing two of these gigantic deer, one of nearly five of sand and then make which weighed 700 lbs. and was delici- strong mortar. Various varieties of ousiy juicy and tender. The follow- rock and freaks of nature are before ing i? quoted from my description of the traveller's eyes. A bowlder, which Muekoka sport in the atlas. "Two ten joke of oxen would not shake, hunters, one day, with ioud and osten- may be seen resting on top of a small tatious preface recounting the boast- detached stone, which itself rests on a ful record of their past conquests in flat rock. A large pine tree is descried the chase, after the manner of the on the top of utter infertility, in the Homeric warriors, sallied forth. For shape of a bowlder. Its roots are brevity, let us christen them Jack and twining round the latter and clasping Mack. Mack was to row along the it for support, till they pierce the fis- shore, while Jack and the dog were to sures of the rock and find nutriment, start the deer towards the water. Soon where all* seems barren. Such are we heard the loud shouting and the among the curiosities of Muskoka, deep baying of the hound, that joyful where also large and magnificent utterance, when he has struck the maiden's hair ferns are to be had. scent of the antlered monarch. The As a tourist's camping ground, the clear, frosty air sent each sound of the MUSKOKA SKETCH. 87 chase, with almost painful distinctness practised in Muskoka, by things in through the interlacing foliage of the the shape of men, who knocked them trees. Nearer and nearer hayed the down with clubs, and for the wanton houud, and then retraced its steps, as if and brutal butchery, had no excuse, the stag had doubled back to the forest. as the poor animals j were too lean Meanwhile, a swift dappled vision ap- or the table and their skins at the peared, some graceful animal, in mor- same time were not in condition. tal terror, a riag of crimson gore circl- Numbers of deer were also torn by- ing its arched neck, and bounding stray dogs, not strong enough to kill with sueh fleetness that the eye could them, but able to lacerate and leave but just identify it as a deer. Shades them in lingering agony. The local of Abbotsford, what a theme for your Government ought to stop this wan- ton immortal owner ! But alas, something destruction of the dee»-, by appoint- always spoils romance in America. The ing efficient foresters. Immense sums deer was Mrs. Samuel Armstrong's pet of money are now brought into the and the ring of crimsom gore round district by sportsmen and the legiti- its neck was an identifying strip of red mate interests of this increasing source flannel, placed there by its fair owner." of revenue ought to be protected. Not only the Whitestone Lake dis- There are exciting adventures to be trict, may be be noted but Oakley had in bear hunting, but Bruin some- is a good township for deer, times changes the programme to that and occasionally such sport can of a man-hunt. be had not far from Bracebridge. The quiet fisherman can have his Deserted lumber shanties are con- own peculiar sport in abundance. venient for hunting parties. Bring Authorities differs as to bait. Charley your hound if you have one, to go in- Haviland, an ex-Muskokaite, now in to training with an experienced dog. Dresden, swears by the artificial There are good hounds to be had for minnow, while my faith is centred in hire in Muskoka. A Henry or Ballard the silver minnow. Some young or a Smith and Wesson rifle is the fisherman get greatly laughed at for best. Those who prefer it can use bringing worms with them, but the a doublebarrelled shot gun for No. 9 or idea is not so very absurd after all 10 buckshot. The deer sometimes for worms are scarce in Muskoka, and dashes through the open with such in dry weather go down to great depths tremendous velocity, that a tyro may for moisture. A guide in Bracebridge miss him even at a short range, where- brought worms from the front, and as the spreading of the buckshot, will sowed them in his garden, so that he almost ensure his downfall. Pot hun- could always supply tourists. Musko- ting and wanton butchery of the deer ka Lake abounds with salmon trout when crowded in "yards," was (and is) and bass among its most valuable 38 MUHKOKA SKBTCH. treasures. Alva Westcott, now ot salmon trout and other fish, but not Dresden, but formerly connected with pickerel. Pickerel and trout are not a large fishing company, on thatjlake, found together. The fish are easily says that he has caught .several^ sal- caught, The setlers take great quan- mon trout, each, of which weighed 52 tities of pickerel about the middle of lbs.^after being cleaned. The Muskoka May, catching them with their hands Trading^ Lake at the foot of the rapids. I went to river, in Oakley ; .and have suberb speckled trout, which last look only one night, taking a man and named variety, in conjunction with boy with me, who caught about 800 white fish is found in the clear waters lbs, of pickerel in abcut one hour and of the Lake of Bays. jThe lakes aud a half. Quantities of herring are streams in Humphrey are full of caught at the Narrows (the narrow salmon, speckled trout, white fish, channel connecting the two arms of pickerel, bass, perch &c. The lakes Whitestone Lake), in the village of all through Ferguson are of clear, Dunchurch. In November 77, about good water and abound in all the fish two thousand two hundred pounds usually found in the Georgian Bay or were caught by one man in his nets in Lake Huron. Ah-Mik and Se-Sabe about fourteen days. They are not lakes (Chapman) abound with bass, so plentiful now. A herring will pickerel, white fish, ' &nd speckled sometimes weigh as much as two trout. Bound Lake (in McMurnch) pounds, the pickerel as high as twenty is well stocked with salmon trout ; pounds, I caught eight of them myself, Big Eye Lake with bass.jand pickerel; which together weighed ninety-seven the Magnetewan with speckled trout ; pounds." Fishing and sporting appli- Lake Nipissing, with pike, bass, white ances and camping outfit, can be pro fish, salmon and sturgeon ; South cured at reasonable prices and good River aud various ^smaller streams quality in Bracbridge. with speckled trout. This fish list is The invalid exhausted by the heats official, from the goverment surveyors. of the city can eat the delicious trout Herring is found in McMurrich. Here and pickerel of the North, while drink- again pot-hunting and wanton destruc- ing in the bracing ozone of the dry tion in and out of season is deplored. air. In the hottest summer's day, I never dare tell fish stories .without you cau cool yourself by getting in the quoting authorities : George Kelcey shade ; for certain diseases, notably says : "The lakes abound with fish dyspepsia, the climate is a specific. in this Township. Whitestone, As to cold, all I can say is. that I do Shawanaga and Limestone Lakes, not remember ever wearing a fur cap contain pickerel, white fish, herring, and I hardly ever put on an overcoat. suckers, catfish &c. High Lake, Once leaving Bracebridge in November Upper Lake, and Sovineer Lakes have with snow on the ground and a clear MUSKOKA SKETCH. 39

frosty air above it, but feeling no need abundance of pure water everywhere, whatever for wraps or overcoat, I and cattle came out of the bush burst- found myself in the evening in King ing with fat in the fall. Sheep do well. St., Toronto, shivering, and my teeth Cattle and sheep brought up in the chattering in the chilly breeze. Gen- district have good constitutions. I erally speaking, the Muskoka hotels think that in the future, the main are well kept, and set a good table. indusfry of Muskoka, will be raising But what as to settlement and pio- young stock, to be sent perhaps to

spects ? At present, many are leaving Kent and other portions of the Penin- Muskoka for the Northwest, but I see sula for fattening for the Englsh no reason why a farmer with a little market. This young stock will come

capital, if he only makes a good selec- to the fattening process with perfectly tion of land, should not do well in the healthy constitutions, and take on former district, where there ar3 tracts flesh rapidly, just as young Scotch of excellent clay loam. Oats, I have cattle are finished in England. As an seen growing in Hagerman, which a instance of the fattening powers of the man six feet high could tie over his bush, let me mention that Mr. F. A.

cap. Potatoes are raised anywhere, Eichardson of Watt, designing to kill

even among rocks and loose stones, two "beef critters" in the fall, allowed of great size, mealy and delicious in one to escape, which pining and flavor. Onions, carrots, parsnips searching for its mate, fled to the bush and beet do very well, and are of from whicli it returned by New Year's a better flavor than in the front day, as fat as any animal not stall-fed counties of Ontario. Where there is well could be. Another undevoloped rock it dips steeply, so tiiat I have resource exists in the hundreds of un- seen corn waving in eoutact with the used water privileges, enough some crag. As I heard it- put the other say to do all the manufacturing for day, "When it's rock its rock and Ontario. The subject of forest culture when it isn't rock, its soil." I have not is receiving much attention just now seen any of those troublesome bowlders in Ontario. Why not make a begin- sunk in the ground, which are com- ning in Muskoka ? The local govern- mon in parts of the eastern townships ment is the trustee of the public of Quebec. The judicious farmer will heritage not only for 1884 but for all find a wall of rock facing the South, time to come. Why not enforest the an invaluable storehouse of heat to barren portions of Muskoka, withdraw- force early vegetables. Clover red ing them from the operation of the aud white, thrives amazingly, aud a Free Grant Act, and place the lumber- heavy crop of grass is grown on a few mon under forest laws similar to those inches of soil over a rock, when flat of Europe with compulsion to replant, rock does occur. The stock raiser has and compensation for so doing ? It 40 MUSKOKA BKBTCH.

is time that everything was done as to tempt the spectator to reaoh for

which can be done to develope the it, and then hiding it with spreading back ground of Ontario, and to hasten wing. Any one who has noticed a the completion through it, of the hawk in such a moment, will have seen connecting link with the C. P. R,. a that its joy in possession of the cap- railway which will also give colonizat- tive is not perfect, till it has provoked ion a stimulus. marked some one to try to take the prize away ADDENDUM. whereupon it hides and reveals the The minerals and economic materi- property sucessively, saying in plain als of which I know anything of as ex- pantomine, "don't you wish you may isting in Muskoka are pottery and get it ?" So with this venerable set- brick clay, very hard building stone, tler, who after many mysterious ges- ochre, limestone, mica (said to be in tures, opened out from an intermin- large sized plates near the Magnete- able series of wrappings, three little wan), silver ore, traces of gold, almost bits of which looked like pluinbage. chemically pure iron ore in Stisted, He said he had a big rock of it. The molybdenite, and an exceedingly fine samples together would have aggre- red sand which might answer for fine gated the size of half a pea. Prof. moulds. The pottery clay has the Croft, who in the joint interest of peculiarity of containing the materials science and settlement generally made of its own glaze, which comes out after free analyses for me of Muskoka the second firing, in great brilliancy. minerals, pronounced it to be Mol>b While in Bracebridge, I volunteered to denite, a rare mineral used to form a make free analyses for the people, certain laboratory re-agent. The and was soon the happy owner of settler was a bachelor, and lived alone. several cwt of rock, gathered in small He was in mortal terror lest some parcels from one end of the district to thief should steal his rock, before lie the other. I had to undeceive the got back. He expressed his inten- fancied possessors of gold mines by tion ot building a shanty and residing naming yellow mica or iron pyrites, as on top of this treasure, tried vainly to the ape of the queen of metals. One borrow a dollar, and I never saw him day, an old settler, crept with a look again. of shivering caution to my office desk. THE END. He was one of those who come out to Bracebridge twice or three times a year, remaining with these exceptions, hidden in the inmost recesses of the bush. He looked round, in the atti- tude of a hawk with a sparrow in its claw, showing a little of the victim so

PRESS NOTICE,

We have received a'dvance sheets of a 'tt'e work called " Muskoka Sketch," .writteu by W. E. Hamilton, editor of the Dresden Times. It gives a highly interest- ing account of Muskoka and Parry Sound districts, writ- ten with much spirit and strict fidelity to truth. Few people have any accurate idea of the great country to the north of us. Those who read M>. Hamilton's pleasant and entertaining sketch will acquire very full informa-

tion concerning it, and wi'l be amused as well as instruct- ed. Some time ago the Spectator referred to the tate of a Muskoka exhibit sent to the Provincial Fair at

Hamilton in 1°80. The story is graphically told in the

sketch. The exhibit was fine in every respect ; it proved the great capabilities of Muskoka as an agricultural country, and received a special diploma from the direct- ors of the fair. But the Provincial Government declined to pay a cent toward the expense of making the exhibit. Mr. Hamilton expended a good deal of money; Mr. Dill, a merchant of Braeebridge, the present Reform candidate

in Muskoka, aided him liberally ; the steamship and

railway companies gave him free transportation ; but

the Ontario Govern me.' it refused to ountenance the

thing or to give a penny in aid of it. Afterwards this patriotic Government paid a lot of money to aid a Mus- koka exhibit at the local fair in Toronto, but that at the

Provincial exhibition, because it was in Hamilton that year, was sternly frowned upon.—Ha-nilton Sjwctator, Dec. 31, 1883.