52 SEA TROUT. 
laws have been passed and will be enforced by the Cana- 
dian government, and the American fisherman may 
find in neighboring waters what he will never again see 
in his own, these noble fish dwelling in abundance, and 
protected from worthless, wanton and unreasonable 
destruction. 
It is a burning shame, a foul blot on the character of 
Americans, and tarnish on their reputation lor far-sighted 
economy, that their only idea of the treatment" of the 
wild game of the woods and waters seems to be total 
annihilation. '• After me a desert," is their motto ; and 
they never rest till, by planting snares and liming 
streams, they have caught the last partridge and poi- 
soned the last fish. Thus have they already desti'oyed 
one of the most valuable resources of the country ; the 
Hudson, the Connecticut, the Penobscot, and even the 
Kennebec, yield no more salmon, and we yearly pay to 
Canada enormous sums for what we once had, and might 
still have, in plenty on our own shores. Xot many 
years ago a person buying shad on the Connecticut 
Eiver was required to take such a proportion of salmon. 
Xow that the head-waters are covered with tanneries and 
saw-mills, and are crossed by dams without the simple 
expedient of a flume that the fish could ascend, and now 
that early salmon are worth a dollar a pound in Xew 
Yoik market, vrhere are the former denizens of the Con- 
necticut i 
All the timber cot on the streams would not pay for 
the damage done to the fisheries. In Canada the people 
have discovered, fortunately for them not too late, the 
importance of stringent protective laws. The nets can 
