township. It then passes through the northeast corner of Lister and enters the township of Deacon. A short distance west of the boundary between these two townships and almost directly north of the mouth of the Little Nipissing the lumbor depot of Messrs. Thistle & Co. is situated. From the depot there is a waggon road to Deux Rivieres on the Ottawa, twenty-four miles distant, which affords an easy means of access from the north.

Fully two-thirds of Cedar lake is in Deacon. It has an elevation of 1,049 feet above the sea, and its total length is very little short of twelve miles. The principal outlet is in lot 12 of the eighth concession of Deacon, where there is a large substantial dam and slide. It has another but smaller outlet known as the "sny" (chenaille) on lot 26 of the ninth concession. The "sny" empties into the main stream on lot 18 in the seventh concession. A large flcod of water must pass through this channel during the spring freshet. The Petawawa is very rough for the first half mile below Cedar lake, after which there are stretches of smooth water alternating with chutes down to lot 24 in the fifth concession, where the river expands into a narrow lake, after which it contracts to a little over a chain in width and enters Trout lake on lot 30 in the third concession.

Trout lake lies 929 feet above sea level, and is a beautiful sheet of water a little over two and one-half miles long by one mile at its greatest width. About half a mile southeast of the foot of the lake the river crosses the east boundary of Deacon and leaves the Reservation.

The Little Madawaska (“hidden river") empties into the northwest bay of Trout lake. This stream is the outlet of lake Le Muir and Hogan lake. North river enters the lake at the head of a deep bay near the western end. This stream is the outlet of North River lake in the northwest part of Deacon. Part of the township of Cameron is drained by a stream which empties into this lake. North river flows through two large lakes, Allan and Depot, in the township of Fitzgerald, which unite with and conduct the waters of Wendigo lake in the township of Clara. These lakes together contain a large body of water and drain a considerable portion of Fitzgerald.

Following a portage for three-fourths of a mile east of Red Pine lake we arrive at the head of lake Le Muir, a sheet of water nearly five miles long, lying one-half in the township of Bishop and one-half in the township of Freswick. This lake is the head of the Little Madawaska river. It has no water flowing into it except two or three very small creeks, but a brook fifty links wide runs out of its east end, so that its bed must cover a number of springs. One and a half miles below lake Le Muir lies Hogan lake, sometimes called Big lake, which extends in a northeasterly direction and has a length of five miles. Three miles down the stream lies Phillips' lake, in the township of Anglin, one and a quarter miles long. The stream crosses the north boundary of Anglin on lot 26, emptying shortly afterwards into Trout lake on the Petawawa river.

Proulx lake in the township of Bower, which is within three-fourths of a mile of the Opeongo, forms with Rock lake one and a half miles farther to the west the headwaters of Crow creek, which runs northwesterly into Crow lake in the township of Freswick, and thence easterly through the township of Anglin into lake Lavieille. A few miles to the northeast it unites with White Partridge creek, the outlet of White Partridge lake in the township of Niven, and thence takes a northerly direction into the Petawawa at Black bay in the township of White.

Lake Lavieille is a large and important body of water. It lies mostly in the township of Anglin, and has two large bays extending southerly into Dickson. Immediately north of the most easterly bay and emptying into it is Clear lake, extending in a southerly direction, with an estimated length of something over five miles.

THE AMABLE DU FOND BASIN.

The south branch of the Amable du Fond* rises in the township of Biggar, a short distance north of the Little Nipissing, and nearly one-half of the township is drained by that stream.

It passes through Long lake, which lies partly in Biggar and partly in Wilkes, and falls successively into Tea, Manitou and Kioshoqui lakes-a delightful chain of waters-of which the first two are in Wilkes and the last in Pentland. These are reinforced by the waters of other lakes and creeks to the west, and also by another branch of the Amable du Fond which flows through the northwest part of Osler, through Maple lake in Pentland, and falls into Kioshoqui lake. The latter near its foot receives also the waters of Mink lake, a somewhat long and narrow sheet which is separated from the upper part of Cauchon lake, one of the sources of the Petawawa, by a distance of less than a mile.

HEADWATERS OF SOUTH RIVER.

Two small streams which rise in the western part of the township of Biggar unite shortly after they leave that township, and may be considered the headwaters of the South River which flows northerly and empties into the South bay of lake Nipissing.

THE TRACT A SUITABLE ONE.

With regard to the fitness of the territory for the purpose of a Reservation and Park, the commissioners have conversed with persons who are familiar with the locality, have consulted the maps and surveyors' and other reports in the Department of Crown Lands, as well as other official documents, and have pursued their inquiry by such other means as were within their power. Except the lumberman and the trapper, there are few who are personally acquainted

*So called from the founder of a family of French half-breeds, Amable du Fond by name, who settled at the foot of Manitou lake many years ago, where his descendants still reside.

with this section of country. Two of the commissioners, however, Mr. Dickson and Mr. Phipps, are able to speak of it from their own knowledge, the former especially having in previous years travelled over and reported on a large portion of it, and having recently examined other parts of it for the purpose of this report. The information obtained from these various sources points wholly to the conclusion that the district is in every way suitable for the purposes alike of a Forest Reservation and National Park.

It comprises within its limits a large part of the watershed which divides the streams flowing into the Ottawa river from those which empty into Georgian bay, and the preservation of the forest upon this elevated tract of land is essential to the maintenance of these important streams in full flow. The interests of the lumberman who annually floats large quantities of timber to market down their waters, of the manufacturer for whose mill-wheels they supply the motive power, and of the farmer to whom a continuous supply of water in spring, well and stream, is an absolute necessity, all require that provision be made to keep the hills and high lands of this plateau covered with a heavy forest growth.

The district is one which has never been opened for settlement, and which, both from its remoteness from population and from its containing only small and scattered areas of tillable soil, is not one to attract even the hardy Canadian backwoodsman, especially when ungranted lands in so many other more accessible and more fertile parts of the Province are at his disposal. Its retention in the hands of the Crown will not appreciably lessen the agricultural area of the Province, while if extensive clearings were allowed to be made, ostensibly for farming purposes, the consequence would be that the district for forest purposes would be rendered useless, an 1 possessing little or no value from an agricultural point of view it would soon be converted into a dreary and abandoned waste.

RIGHTS OF TIMBER LICENSEES.

It is true that the whole of the territory within the proposed Reservation is covered by licenses to cut timber. The rights of the holders of such licenses must of course be fully respected, and there is nothing in the scheme proposed which in the opinion of the commissioners will infringe upon these rights. Part of the territory in question was included in the timber sale of 1892, which conveyed the right to cut the pine timber only, and while as to other portions of the district licensees are not at present prohibited from cutting other kinds of timber, as a matter of fact the chief if not the only object of the lumberman's quest is the pine, which is the only timber found within the Park possessing any considerable commercial value, or which can be floated to market in the usual way. Though the money value of these forests consists almost entirely in the pine, the other species of trees are so numerous and grow so thriftily there that

even were the pine wholly removed the utility of the forests in their climatic, water-maintaining and other aspects would probably not be impaired. In one respect, indeed—the preservation of game and animal life-it is the opinion of those conversant with the circumstances, that a growth of the smaller deciduous trees, such as usually takes the place of the coniferous varieties when the latter are removed, would be preferable to a pine forest, in affording a larger supply of edible buds which form the staple food of many birds, such as the partridge, and of leaves and bark, the favorite sustenance of such animals as the moose and beaver.

The system of fire-ranging inaugurated by the Department of Crown Lands some years ago has shown the value of concerted and organized effort in the prevention of forest fires, the cause of such frequent and heavy loss, and the limit-holders within the Park will no doubt welcome the additional aid which the Park rangers will afford them in the protection of the timber. The prohibition of settlement will also be in keeping with the lumbermen's views, as the presence of squatters and others in a pine district is, as a rule, regarded by them as a fruitful source of trouble and danger.

As indicative of the attitude which license-holders may be expected to take, the commissioners may say that they have received a letter from Messrs. McLachlin Bros., lumbermen, of Arnprior, who are owners of extensive timber limits in the vicinity of the proposed Reservation, and who have requested that the boundaries of the Park be so arranged as to take in a number of townships, over some of which they hold the right to cut. Several of these townships do not appear to the commissioners to be so conveniently situated for the purposes of a Reservation and Park as those they recommend, but of the nine townships suggested by Messrs. McLachlin Bros. two are included within the proposed boundaries. This firm furnished a report to the commissioners on the townships named by them made by Mr. Frank Purvis, O.L.S., in which that gentleman says: Taking it altogether, it seems to me that nature intended that particular portion of our fair Province of Ontario to be the home of the beaver, otter, deer, moose, bear and of the aborigines. Deer upon every hill and mountain side, the valleys and swamps abounding with wolves and bears, every rivulet, every lake, literally teeming with fish. Verily 'tis a Park indeed." Mr. Purvis' description is no doubt equally applicable to the whole of the territory which the commissioners suggest as suitable for Reservation and Park purposes.

NO VESTED INTERESTS IN THE WAY.

The wisdom of the policy by which the Crown while disposing of the timber retains the ownership of the soil upon which it grows is made strikingly manifest when considering the question in hand. The land belongs wholly to the Crown, and as a consequence there are no vested or private interests in it to be bought up or dealt with.

In the opinion of the commissioners more advantageous circumstances under which to take action of the kind contemplated could not exist. The land is entirely public land; there are no settlers upon it, except one or two squatters ; no rights, whether of fishing, hunting, or anything of the kind, have been granted; in fact, with the exception of the lumbering operations which have removed a large portion of the pine, and the fires which have swept over considerable parts of it, nothing has been done to change its condition from that of the untouched, primeval forest. Should action be longer delayed, irreparable damage may be done by forest fires, or the extension of settlement may root within the soil a host of vested interests troublesome to deal with and costly to extinguish.

THE CASE OF THE ADIRONDACK FOREST.

The experience of the State of New York shows the great difficulty there is in setting aside a portion of the public domain for such purposes when large and scattered areas have become the property of private individuals. It is impossible to satisfactorily carry out a scheme of this kind unless a continuous area can be brought under its provisions, and when persons or corporations own lands or rights within such area they must either be bought out at prices which they are in a position to dictate, or the scheme must be modified in a way that can hardly fail to greatly reduce its advantages to the public. Out of a total area of 2,307,760 acres which it was proposed to comprise within the boundaries of the Adirondack Park in that State, the Forest Commission in their report for 1890 gave the area of the lands belonging to the State as 512,229 acres only, while they said that it would be necessary for the State to acquire the title to no less than 1,332,503 acres, the cost of which they estimated at from $3,000,000 to $3,500,000. Even then the Park would not be completely a public one, for there would be still within its boundaries 64,717 acres of improved land and 341,207 acres held as "private reserves." The difficulties attending the establishment of a Park under such conditions have proven so great that in his message transmitted to the Legislature on the 3rd of January, 1893, Governor Flower stated that the results, after nearly seven years' effort to establish an Adirondack Park, must be considered disappointing, and he recommended either that two or three million acres be acquired at once by exercise of the right of eminent domain, or that arrangements be made with private owners by which, in consideration of forest protection and exemption from taxation, they should refrain forever from removing the timber except on certain conditions imposed by the State.

It is evident that in the former case the expenditure of very large sums of money would be necessary, while in the latter the Park when established would lose very much of its public character. So imperative, however, does Governor Flower deem the preservation of the Adirondack forest and the consequent