28 The Atlantic Salmon 



Where they go during these marine sojourns is 

 a mystery likely to be long insoluble. It is 

 thought by many that they do not go a great 

 distance from the mouths of their native rivers, 

 and the fact of their almost uniform return to 

 these makes this conjecture a probable one in 

 default of any actual knowledge to the contrary. 

 It was discovered many years ago in Britain that 

 salmon about visiting fresh water strike the coast 

 at some distance from the rivers to which they 

 are bound, and follow the coast along to their 

 mouths. This knowledge has been utilized by 

 the netters, much to the discomfiture of the poor 

 fish, whose perils have been doubled. The same 

 is true of this country, and the salmon of the 

 rivers flowing into the Bay of Chaleurs are 

 decimated by nets set in the sea as far as fifty 

 miles down the coast from the estuary of the 

 Restigouche. The returns of salmon caught by 

 the netters are notoriously untrue, but it is 

 probable that the nets below the estuary take 

 quite as many fish as those set in and above it, 

 and are doing their full share toward rendering 

 worthless the many splendid salmon streams trib- 

 utary to the bay. 



It is not now considered certain that salmon 



