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Cartier was enchanted with the natural beauties of "as fine a country as one would wish to see and live in, level and smooth, warmer than Spain, where there is abundance of wheat, which has an ear like that of rye, and again like oats, peas growing as thickly and as large as if they had been cultivated, red and white barberries, strawberries, red and white roses, and other flowers of a delightful and sweet perfume, meadows of rich grasses, and rivers full of salmon" a perfectly true description of the beautiful country watered by the Restigouche and Metapedia rivers.
Even the Turks have a proverb which says, "Every fish that escapes appears larger than it is." No one can alter that conviction, because no one can logically refute it. Our best blessings, like our largest fish, always depart before we have time to measure them. The Slide Pool is in the wildest and most picturesque part of the river, about thirty-five miles above Metapedia.
We traversed the whole of the valley of the Metapedia, and passed the doors of many famous salmon streams and rivers, and heard everywhere the talk they inspire; one could not take a nap in the car for the excitement of the big fish stories he was obliged to overhear.
"It won't be hot where I'm going up into the valley of the Metapedia." "It's rather a sudden decision, isn't it?" "N no. I generally try to get a little sport some time during the year." "Naturally you know your own intentions best. I only happen to remember that you said, yesterday morning, you hoped not to leave Rhinefields till the middle of next month." "Did I say that?
At intervals a larger stream, reaching away back among the mountains like a hand with many fingers to gather "The filtered tribute of the rough woodland," delivers its generous offering to the main current. The names of the chief tributaries of the Ristigouche are curious. There is the headstrong Metapedia, and the crooked Upsalquitch, and the Patapedia, and the Quatawamkedgwick.
The one comfortable and prosperous feature in the countenance of Metapedia is the house of the Ristigouche Salmon Club an old-fashioned mansion, with broad, white piazza, looking over rich meadow-lands.
The Metapedia is deficient in good pools in its lower portions; its limpid waters flowing with a tranquil murmur over its wide, evenly paved bed for miles at a stretch. The salmon pass over these shallows by night and rest in the pools by day.
There are the Ottawa, the Gatineau, the Rideau, the Richelieu, the Lievre, the Matanne, the Metapedia, the Metis, the Saguenay. Those are the ones we know. Then look at the Peribonka, the Maniconagan, all the Ste. Anne's, all the Rouge or Red rivers, the Du Moine, the Coalonge, the Vermilion, the St. Francis.
but we took down the long rods, put away the heavy reels, made the canoes fast to the side of the house, embarked the three horses on the front deck, and then dropped down with the current, swinging along through the rapids, and drifting slowly through the still places, now grounding on a hidden rock, and now sweeping around a sharp curve, until at length we saw the roofs of Metapedia and the ugly bridge of the railway spanning the river.
The Metapedia is a most enticing-looking stream; its waters are as colorless as melted snow; I could easily have seen the salmon in it as we shot along, if they had come out from their hiding-places.
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