Beyond the Wild River

by Sarah Maine

  James smiled at her: ‘Or on some other fitting occasion—’

  Her father’s eyes narrowed as he looked back at her. ‘I said you were a child still,’ he said slowly, ‘but I believe I am mistaken. You were, after all, willing to shoot a man—’

  Out in the middle of the pool there was a splash and sunlight caught the rainbow hues of a mighty trout as it arched, leaping clear of the water, scattering silver droplets as it rose. And as it fell back the old fighter shattered the surface of the pool, taking with it a jaw full of hooks and trailing lengths of broken fishing line.

  Acknowledgments

  The characters and events in the book are entirely fictional. The River Tweed flows through the lovely Scottish Borders, but Ballantyre’s estate along its course is imaginary. The Nipigon River also exists, although not as it did in 1893 when it drew ‘Gentlemen Anglers’ from across the globe to fish for the legendary brook trout. Since the 1920s hydroelectricity has altered the river beyond recognition, though fishermen still enjoy fine sport there. I am enormously grateful to Betty Brill at the excellent Nipigon museum (nipigonmuseumtheblog.blogspot.com) not only for all her help in pointing me to early literature about the river, but also for her helpful correspondence on the natural history and wildlife in the area. I hope that she, and others, will forgive the liberties I have taken with the town and geography of the region. Of those articles to which she drew my attention, ‘Days on the Nepigon’ by E. E. M. (1917) and ‘Up the Nepigon’ by Elizabeth Taylor (1889) proved invaluable sources. A Historical Walk Through Nipigon by Bonnie Satten (2003) describes the town in past years, and John R. M. Kelso and James W. Demers’s Our Living Heritage: The Glory of the Nipigon (1993) tells the story of that small town’s fascinating history, while Thomas Waters’s The Superior North Shore (1987) describes the natural history. Thunder Bay Library staff are also to be thanked for sending me a copy of Hiram Slack’s 1887 account of a fishing trip up the Nipigon and for dealing with other enquiries during my visit there. Joseph Mauro’s informative and well-illustrated book, A History of Thunder Bay (1981), provided insights into the days when Port Arthur was set to become the ‘Chicago of the North,’ as did Tania Saj’s The Last Best Places: Storytelling About Thunder Bay’s Historic Buildings (2009), while Elinor Barr’s Silver Islet – Striking It Rich in Lake Superior (1988) tells the extraordinary story of that mine. Information on the Chicago World’s Fair was gleaned from many sources, but the Fair was brought to life by the illustrations in Neil Harris, Wim de Wit, James Gilbert, and Robert Rydell’s Grand Illusions: Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893 (1993). Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; or Life in the Woods and his essay ‘Civil Disobedience’ provided inspiration for developing the character of Niels Larsen, and also for the views of Jacko and Charles Ballantyre. All these sources provided inspiration and period background but do not alter the case that Beyond the Wild River is a work of fiction.

  On a more personal level I am grateful to an old friend Cliff Samson, now an antipodean fly fisherman, for pointing me in the direction of Red Palmer: A Practical Treatise on Fly Fishing (1888) by Taylor James, as well as answering other questions. The Scottish Borders, near Kelso, have special memories for my family, and my sons came with me to rediscover cherished childhood days spent in northwestern Ontario. They bore me company in Thunder Bay and for a memorable few days in Nipigon where, as we drove back one night along the road beside the river, a tree fell across our route in one of those sudden storms. One fell in the campsite of the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) during his fishing trip to Nipigon too. The days when Nipigon drew such exalted figures to fish there might be over, but the history of that region still fascinates. It might not be as wild as it was in 1893, but it is still a very beautiful, if little known, part of the world, where the trappings of civilisation seem to fall away.