26 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb. 



existed as to the kinds of fish caught in them, his observations led 

 him to believe that no salmon- or herring-fry nor other immature 

 fish were taken by them ; at least he had never seen such though 

 he had examined several weirs. 



Mr. Watt stated that the Fisheries Act left the Commissioner 

 of Crown Lands free to allow or to disallow any sort of net or com- 

 bination of nets, and that he and his subordinates might be sup- 

 posed to understand their own business better than amateurs and 

 to have the interests of the fisheries as much at heart. He said 

 that so far from fixed-emnnes beino- abolished in Britain it was 

 perfectly lawful to use them even in fresh-water and for salmon, 

 and quoted official advertisements approved at the Home Office in 

 January last, containing regulations for the guidance of salmon 

 fishermen using stake-nets, bag-nets, stake-weirs and fly-nets, autho- 

 rizing meshes much smaller than ours, and netting five weeks later ; 

 he averred that the modes of salmon fishing pursued in Britain 

 were much more destructive than that pursued here, and would, 

 owing (among other causes) to the different physical conformation of 

 Lower Canada, empty our rivers in a few years if practised by 

 us. He denied that the salmon nets now in use were in any way 

 responsible for the evils complained of. His observations on 

 brush-weirs coincided with those of Dr. Dawson. Having examined 

 many such he had found neither smolts nor immature fish of any 

 kind ; their contents consisted chiefly of tomcods, sand-launce, 

 caplin, sardines, and smelts — some of which fish had often been 

 confounded with salmon-fry. As regulated by the Act, Mr. Watt 

 considered these weirs should be harmless enough modes of 

 fishing. 



Mr. A. Murray (President of the Game Protection Club) 

 said that as this matter had been taken up by the Society, it was 

 important that its decision should be a correct one and based on a 

 sufficient knowledge of the subject. In the Game Protection 

 Societies of Montreal and Quebec the opinion was almost unani- 

 mous against fishing by means of fixed-engines. He had with him 

 a number of authorities on the subject and was prepared to enter 

 upon it, but as the discussion was not likely to be a short one, he 

 preferred to adopt the suggestion already thrown out and allow the 

 matter to lie over until next meeting. The report of the Montreal 

 Fish and Game Club would be issued in course of a week or two ; 

 it would discuss the subject at some length and he would see that 



