540 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



several respects, has an important bearing on the point we are examin- 

 ing - . Were they allured back to the stream by its peculiar and excep- 

 tional condition f Were they an advance-party exploring their former 

 haunts, with a purpose of recolonization by their tribe? The Au Sable 

 never abounded with salmon to the extent that characterized other 

 streams in the vicinity. No tradition's exist of its having teemed with 

 vast schools of the fish. They frequented it, however, in numbers to 

 make the fishery highly satisfactory. The salmon, it is supposed, left 

 this river simultaneously v.ith their abandonment of all the other 

 tributaries of the lake. We have seen that no dam or other artificial 

 obstruction ever existed on the lower portion of the river, and therefore 

 the disappearance of the fish from that particular stream cannot be im- 

 puted to the existence of any of these impediments. We must account 

 for this result on some different theory. Modern improvement has 

 created structures over the Au Sable which may affect the successful 

 introduction of the salmon into the stream. The New York and Canada 

 Railroad crosses the river not far from its mouth, and has constructed 

 a bridge over both the branches, which form a delta of the river. The 

 bridges are much elevated above the usual level of the water ; I have 

 felt apprehensive that these structures and their use might impair the 

 value even of the common fisheries on the stream. The hunting of the 

 salmon at that period in the Au Sable was by unusual methods and 

 specially exciting. An aged man is still living who informed Dr. 

 George F. Bixby, of Plattsburgh, that, in his boyhood, he was in the 

 habit of carrying a torch or jack-light for a sportsman to spear salmon 

 in this stream, and that they killed them, often weighing twenty pounds. 

 They would descend the high bank and enter the river near the head of 

 the natural canal, and, wading in the water toward the fall, fduud the 

 fish lying upon the bottom, who, either dazzled by the light or 

 careless in their refuge, would allow the spearsman to approach them 

 sufficiently near to strike. He represented the fish as appearing, when 

 the torch-light was reflected from their mottled backs, like bunches of 

 hay sunken in the water. 



The valued correspondent from whom I have frequently quoted, writes 

 me that when a child he saw a man sitting in a boat at the head of one 

 of the rapids I have described, and drawing in the salmon with great 

 rapidity ; that he cast a long line and a common hook baited with a 

 piece of pork into the rapids, and that even before the hook touched 

 the water the fish would seize it with the eagerness that is often dis- 

 played by the trout. This is the only instance that my inquiries have 

 disclosed of salmon being taken in these waters by the hook. It was a 

 common sport, fifty years ago, to seek the salmon on the falls, where 

 they were speared in great numbers, as they attempted to leap up the 

 precipice. 



