THE SPORTSMAN’S PARADISE by Ralph Bice

From February 23, 1977

I have been reading a book, “The Sportsman’s Paradise”. There are really three stories in the well written book. The first account of a trip into the woods was written in 1882, the main one in 1884, and the last one a year or two later. The book was written by a man from Jersey City who no doubt liked to hunt and fish. But why, nearly a hundred years ago, he would have had to come all the way to East Parry Sound to be able to get back in the woods he does not explain. But by his accounts they did have some fine hunting and fishing.

The first trip deals with the area around Baysville, where they fished and hunted partridge and deer, without too much luck. He tells about almost getting into trouble for fishing on Sunday. He tells of going into Bala and up the lakes to Rosseau, by wagon on the old Nipissing Road to Magnetewan and then up the river to Burks Falls. (Note: The Grenkie’s were among the first to pioneer Rosseau. – Ed.) Capt. George Ross was their guide. At Burks Falls they hired a man named Burk, after whom the village was named, to drive them to Pickerel Lake. He tells about the fine bass fishing in that lake. They camped near the farm of an early settler named Mossup and I am told that there is still a spot at Pickerel Lake known as Mossup’s clearing.

They hunted and killed many deer, some of which they gave to settlers. Their deer hunting was done mostly with dogs and this when the leaves were on so the deer season, if there was one, must have been lengthy. In 1884 he writes of a trip to the area north of Sand Lake. His top guide, Captain Ross and his brother Wellington, apparently trapped in this area and they did have some crude cabins. It was their stories of moose that really were the reason for the second trip. His companion was a German, an army officer who had come to the U.S.A. after the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served as an artillery officer. The train then stopped at Gravenhurst. The group travelled by wagon to Bala, boat to Rosseau, and then wagon or stage to Magnetewan. Then by wagon again to Sphynx Falls , which I am told would have to be the falls near Pink’s farm a few miles above Burks Falls.

Deer were hunted with dogs, and most of the deer were killed in the water which was common practice when I was growing up. They killed many deer and tell of taking meat to a widow near Sand Lake which has to be Mrs. Olton whose husband died in a lumber camp near Bracebridge and she was left with a large family to raise, which she did.

But they were after moose. The hunters were really roughing it. In tents all the time, unless they were sleeping out, and the barest of rations. Mostly they lived on the game they shot. Before the hunt ended they had snow, lots of it. In one day they saw twenty moose, none of which they killed. They finally did get two moose, one whose spread was sixty inches. They hunted close to a settler name Harkness who took them over a very muddy road to where they could get a team and wagon. The first part was with a yoke of oxen and jumper. They finally reached Burks Falls where they were once again glad to be under a roof and with well cooked meals.

 

The train was running then and they went to Toronto well pleased with their hunting trip.

So many things were interesting. One was the rifles they carried. They had some repeaters, no doubt the first 44-40 that Winchester built. Also they had the old single shot Ballard. These were a heavy rifle, octagon barrel, very accurate. Once, years ago, I could have purchased one for four dollars; only trouble I did not have the four dollars. It would have been worth many times that amount today.

It was the amount of game, I mean deer and moose, that interested me. So many times we read an article on deer where the writer tells us that there were no deer in the area until the settlers came or the lumbermen had been there and cut the pine. Early stories about Haliburton and Muskoka tell us there were many deer. Even Champlain tells of the fine stag hunting he had on his trip from the Ottawa to Lake Nipissing. But these writers still go on trying to sell us the theories of deer rather than the facts. And by the accounts of this book written by a man who had two extended hunting trips there were numerous deer and moose in this area.

The writer, B.A. Watson, tells of three trips, the last a short one, when they camped near Magnetewan on a lake then called Lake of Many Islands. A very interesting account of hunting in this part of Ontario and so well described that many times I wished that I might have been along.

QUOTE

When the visitors realized that they were not going to be invited to dinner they donned their coats and said goodbye. The host, flustered, said “I am sorry that I mean not to ask you to stay for dinner, but we have nothing to eat but potatoes.”

In one motion they removed their coats and said “we would be delighted to stay. We have nothing at home but turnips.”

Note: Lorne Davy of Bancroft told me that one spring they had nothing to eat but turnips – breakfast, lunch and supper. My father-in-law had similar stories growing up on a farm near Stayner, Ontario. –Ed.