THE ATLANTIC SALMON. 539 



which discharged a strong and impetuous volume of water through a 

 race-way. I saw schools of salmon swimming below the bridge, and 

 individuals speared from it at a height of fifteen or twenty feet. They 

 seemed to be wandering in confusion, ascended to the foot of the dam 

 and returned, paying no attention to the sluice-way, which was indeed 

 impracticable for their ascent from the slight supply of water that 

 passed down the slope. They were constantly attracted to the race- 

 way, and plunged into it as if its rushing current was congenial to their 

 habits, or perhaps in the vain hope of reaching by that channel their 

 appropriate breeding-grounds. A weir was built in tli is race-way, in 

 which, during the season, salmon were daily captured. 



4.— THE AU SAELE RIVEE. 



The contemplated scope of this paper does not embrace any notice of 

 the policy which has been initiated for restoring salmon to the waters 

 of this region ; but I will venture to express a regret that the experi- 

 ment was not extended to the An Sable Eiver. The reasons for this view 

 will best appear from a brief notice of the peculiarities of the stream and 

 the salmon-fishery connected with it. It will be seen that it retains, 

 more than any other tributary of the lake, its original qualities and 

 conditions. 



The river measures from the lake to a high vertical fall, which was 

 never surmounted by the salmon, a distance of about six miles. Nearly 

 one-half of this space is below the chasm, and occupied by heavy rapids 

 or gentler ripples, with occasional short ranges of slackwater. A placid 

 and deep pool lies immediately at the foot of the chasm, where the 

 water seems to rest after its turbulent passage through the gorge. 

 Above this point, the water rushes with impetuous violence, and in part 

 of its course is compressed within a narrow natural canal, where a 

 human foothold cannot be maintained for a moment, and which no fish 

 but the salmon could ascend. In the short space between this canal 

 and the falls, the stream somewhat expands and although rapid is less 

 vehement than below. Through its whole course, with brief intervals, 

 it is overshadowed by masses of trees and thick bushes, or it leaps and 

 roars beneath lofty precipices that cast a perpetual shade, where the 

 rays of the sun have never penetrated. At one period, the whole line of 

 the river above this fall was studded with saw-mills; but to-day not one 

 of any magnitude exists within twenty miles of the lake, while below this 

 point no dam or other artificial obstruction has ever been erected on the 

 river. Such is the present aspect of the Au Sable, and such was nearly 

 its condition a hundred years ago. In the six miles I have described, 

 it is as quiet and secluded as it is possible any stream can be in the 

 midst of a populous and cultivated territory. The remarkable circum- 

 stance to which I have adverted of the appearance of the salmon in the 

 Au Sable River in the year 1838, and long after they had abandoned all 

 the waters of the Champlain system, while it is highly significant in 



