"Chicago to the Sea." Eastern Excursionist / A complete guide to the principal eastern summer resorts, including: Niagara Falls, the White Mountains, Saint Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, Montreal and Quebec, the New England sea beaches, etc., and how and when to enjoy them.

by William C. Gage

The Saguenay River is remarkable, not only for its great depth, but also for the marvelous height of its banks. It seems to flow through a rift in the Laurentian Mountains, which appear to be cleft, as it were, to the very foundations, the height of the cliffs rising from the edge of the river being equaled only by the depth to which they descend below the surface. The source of the river is 130 miles from its junction with the St. Lawrence, in Lake St. John, which is fed by eleven rivers, draining an immense watershed, the great volume resultant pouring through this remarkable gorge, in many places unfathomable. At St. John’s Bay, 27 miles above Tadousac, the water is one mile and a half in depth, and but little less at Eternity Bay, six miles beyond. At the latter place, the wonderful capes, Trinity and Eternity, like giant sentinels guard the entrance, rising 1,500 and 1,900 feet, respectively, above the water.

Ha-Ha Bay is sixty miles above Tadousac, and is nine miles long by six wide. It has also been named Grand Bay. The first-named title is said to have come from the exclamations of delight which sprung from the lips of the navigators of the river on its discovery; and in contrast with the gloomy and forbidding aspect of the lower portions of the river, it would seem that such an outburst might be perfectly natural. The mountains around Ha-Ha Bay abound in whortleberries, or blueberries, as they are here called, and a very important industry with the natives is the gathering and shipment to market of the bountiful harvest thus kindly furnished by nature, the picking season extending from the middle of July until the falling of the snow, and the supply being inexhaustible.

HA-HA BAY, SAGUENAY RIVER.

CAPES ETERNITY AND TRINITY.

INDIAN CURIOSITY SELLER.

Chicoutimi, a few miles beyond, is at the head of navigation, the river being obstructed above this point by rapids and falls. Lumbering is one of its important industries, the immense forests of the vicinity being as yet almost in their virgin state, and the harbor accessible to the largest vessels, thus giving it natural facilities of great value.