The Natural History of ilic Salmon, 1G7 



Hn the Foyle tlie produce lias been raised from forty-tliree tons to very nearly 

 : three hundred tons per annum. The movemeut of steamers and other vessels 

 in no degree interferes with their migrations, nor do the din and clang of 

 saw-mills, with light glaring the night through, frighten them from their 

 jom'neyiugs. .]S«'or need their movements be impeded by perpendicular dams 

 of such height as to prevent them froin running freely up and down the 

 rivers. All difiSculty is at once obviated by constructing an apron or slope 

 on the lower side of every dam, extending from the top of the dam to tlie 

 bottom of the river below, with a smooth even surflice, sloping at an angle 

 of forty-five degrees with the horizon, and located in the main channel of the 

 stream. By enforcing the maintenance of such aprons to every dam, and 

 restricting the capture of the fish to those seasons when alone they are fit 

 for food and to that size which may be supposed to denote their maturity, a 

 vast amount of wealth might be secured to Canada from the Salmon fishery. 

 I have seen it stated, but have not the means of verifying it, that in the 

 Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the exports of Salmon alone, 

 apart from the home consumption, which is enormous, amounts " to the 

 annual value of several hundred thousands of pounds sterling." And with 

 liuch noble rivers as w^e possess, what is to hinder us from deriving a like 

 advantage ? The Salmon demand of us no care for themselves, nor toil in 

 raising and preparing food on which to fatten them ; old ocean gives them 

 ■free pasturage, and all they ask at our hands is the opportunity to propag-ate 

 and grow. 



Auxilliary to protective legislation is the diffusion among all classes of 

 ■correct information respecting their Natural History and their economical 

 value. The owner cf a mill site needs to understand it is but just that, in 

 ■erecting his dom, he should be obliged to build it in such a manner as not 

 to make it a tax on the whole province by diminishing one of its sources of 

 wealth. The fisherman should know that he can not be allowed to impoverish 

 the fishery by taking half grov/n fish, merely that his immediate gains may 

 bs a little greater. And the dweller on the inland streams should learn to 

 distinguish the spawning from the fresh run fish, and to know that the littls 

 Pry, the Smolt, and the Grilse, if suffered to remain in their native element, 

 will in a few more months become the noble Salmon ; and that the laws 

 which forbid their capture are really made for his benefit. 



Nothing has been said of the Salmon as a fish of game, how he has 

 lured Sir Humphrey Davy from his Philosophy, Chitty from his Law, AVilson 

 from his University ; nor is there any need to one who has felt his arrowy 

 rush and listened to the music of the swift running reel. A word might well 

 be said illustrative of his habits under trying circmnstances ; how when the 

 barbed iron is in his jaw, he leaps and runs and struggles to be free ; how 

 lie tries to throw himself upon the lightened line, or to smash the tackle 

 against a rock, but there is neither time nor space. 



In Canada, the Salmon are found in the St. Lawrence and its tiibutaries, 



especially its large northern tributaries, and northward of the Gulf, in every 



.stream that runs to the ocean. Some five and twenty years ago they were 



