Kesagami Lake is a lake of

Cochrane District Cochrane District is a district and Census divisions of Canada, census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1921 from parts of Timiskaming District, Timiskami ...

, in

Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiska ...

, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is a shallow lake that was formed assumedly by glacial erosion and unique for its size in the

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost par ...

area. Entirely protected within

Kesagami Provincial Park Kesagami Provincial Park is in Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1983 and provides backcountry canoeing, camping, and fishing opportunities. The bulk of the park consists of a large near-rectangular piece of lan ...

, it is notable in particular for its trophy pike and walleye fishing. The lake, formerly also called Mesackamee or Mesackamy Lake, was home to a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

, called Mesackamee House, between 1777 and 1780. George Atkinson, Peter Liske, William Thomas, and William Robinson were sent there from

Moose Factory Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in lands no ...

along with two indigenous families to settle the area in order to protect business at Abitibi from competitors. The post was abandoned by October 1779. Fish species in Kesagami Lake include

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

, common

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonl ...

and

longnose sucker The longnose sucker (''Catostomus catostomus'') is a species of cypriniform freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is native to North America from the northern United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in Russia in rive ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

, and

lake whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

Description

The lake is irregularly shaped with some long and large bays; from its wide open northern portion three large bays stretch off to the south, including Opimiskau Bay, which measures about , and Newnham Bay, that is long. Three short bays extend to the north. The Kesagami River enters the most eastern of the large southern bays (Newnham Bay) and flows out by the most eastern of the small northern bays (Kochichi Bay). With shores unprotected either by large forests or significant hills, the lake is exposed to the continual sweep of storms from James Bay. Annual report (1904) (14742192046)

Its shores are almost entirely surrounded by

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

cliffs which have long been recognized as "exceptional". These cliffs, that comprise not only the shores of the mainland but also those of the main islands, rise above the water sometimes only a few feet, but are often in height. The dash of waves on the soft, spongy material has worn away the banks to a marked degree, forming along the waterfront bizarre forms of overhanging cliffs, deep caves, caverns, thick columns, and pillars. From time to time huge sections of these cliffs fall off, and are soon worn to a black powder, which is washed up and down by the surf along the shore. At many locations along the shore where peat beds do not appear, only

sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

grows. The surrounding terrain area is flat, poorly drained and dominated by

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

muskeg Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or ...

s and large

fen-meadow A fen-meadow is a type of peatland, common in North America and Europe, that receives water from precipitation and groundwater. Habitat The continuous flow of mineral-rich and nutrient-poor acidic groundwater through fen-meadow topsoil fosters ...

s. The exposed points, such as those between the bays, are long, narrow gravel spits from which all the peat has been removed. Many of the smaller points, as well as a portion of the eastern coast south of the lake's outlet, are heaped with large rolled gallet. The bays often have narrow sand beaches bordering the shore, covering the base of the peat cliffs. At a few points the stratum beneath the peat is exposed, and is composed of a hard dense, almost boulderless bluish clay, evidently glacial.

References

{{Reflist Lakes of Cochrane District

Description

See also

References