Canada -- Description and travel; Canadian poetry -- History and criticism
he complains. The lingerer camping out on the French River has no
green-shaded electric reading-lamp at his elbow; no electric bell
summons his {123} servitor. He "catches" his breakfast in the deep
waters of the lake; he concocts his matutinal coffee over a
camp-fire. No ingenious victrola enchants his evening with the lyric
melody of Melba or Caruso; but instead, the strange cry of the loon
echoes startlingly through the silences. And so it falls out that
the hardy devotees of the chase and the camp hail this region as
their El Dorado.
Unlike the Nipissing, Timagami, as before noted, may be considered to
be the earthly paradise of those to whom the necessities of life
consist in the modern luxuries; those who would quite sympathise with
John Lothrop Motley; who remarked that if he had the luxuries of life
he could get on very well without the necessities.
Nibigami, "country of lakes," is a new outing ground in Canada now
made accessible by the Canadian Government Railways; and all this
hitherto unknown wilderness is enlisting the devotion of thousands of
hunters, of fishermen, and hardly less of the artist and student.
Three hours east of Winnipeg is Minaki, the "Beautiful Country" of
the Indians, at which station passengers may disembark to step into a
steam launch for a sail of twenty minutes to Minaki Inn. This is a
large and charmingly appointed hotel, accommodating three hundred and
fifty guests, with its annex, Minaki Lodge, affording rooms for
seventy-five in addition, located in a natural park of fourteen
acres, every room having its own outlook {124} over lakes or
woodlands. With its spacious piazzas, its artistic furnishing, its
admirable management, it is little wonder that the Minaki Inn has
leapt into popular favour, not only for season guests, but also for
travellers en route for the Canadian Rockies, for Jasper and Mount
Robson Parks, or Prince Rupert, and for all those who find the Minaki
a restful place at which to break the journey. The hotel is woodland
embowered and lake mirrored. It is supremely comfortable.
Around the lakes on which the Inn is placed is a large and constantly
increasing number of cottages, very artistic in architectural detail,
built by wealthy people of Winnipeg and elsewhere for their summer
homes. They are by no means primitive in construction; the latest
devices in heating, lighting, and household conveniences as well as
luxurious furnishings are in evidence; and at night from the piazzas
and balconies of the hotel the circle of these friendly illuminations
around the lakes is fascinating to the gazer.
[Illustration: View in Jasper Park]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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