on the qualities of which there was a lack of 

 education. She was not slow to force her way, 

 and is maintaining the position assumed with 

 every indication of increasing her market. This 

 is shown very clearly in the shipments of coal 

 from Alberta eastward, which in 1920 totalled 

 about 500,000 tons as compared with approxi- 

 mately 250,000 tons in 1919. 



Alberta's Fishing Industry 



By James Colley, Secy. Western Canada Irrigation 

 Assn., Calgary, Alberta. 



The fishing industry is one that is seldom 

 associated with the province of Alberta, and 

 people who think of this province as simply a 

 grain-growing and stock-raising country may be 

 surprised to know that fishing is one of the 

 largest of its potential resources. 



Throughout Northern Alberta are thousands 

 of lakes that are literally teeming with fish, and 

 though an important industry has already been 

 built up on some of these lakes, the industry is 

 very small compared with its possible develop- 

 ment. 



During 1920, seven fishing companies were 

 operating in the Northern Alberta lakes. During 

 the summer, 43,941 hundredweight of whitefish 

 and 7,114 hundredweight of other kinds of fish 

 were caught in the Lesser Slave Lake and Lake 

 La Biche. These two lakes are open for fishing 

 during the summer only. Winter fishing is, how- 

 ever, carried on extensively on the Buffalo and 

 other lakes. One company alone, the Mclnnes 

 Fish Company, which operates on the Lesser 

 Slave and Buffalo Lakes, loaded fifty-two cars 

 of fish for outside points last year, part of which 

 found a market at points as far away as Toronto 

 and Chicago. 



Whitefish is the species of fish most generally 

 found in these lakes. This fish has always 

 figured in the records of the Canadian North 

 West as a reliable food supply available winter 

 and summer. It is doubtful whether the fur 

 trade could have been carried on without it. 

 Whitefish was the food of the native hunter of 

 the Northern wilds, as well as of the dog team 

 hauling furs to the posts. Many times the scows 

 going to the posts laden with the year's supply of 

 foodstuffs were wrecked in the rapids. The factor 

 and his hunters would have been in a sorry 

 plight but for the whitefish they were able to 

 catch, and on which they lived until the following 

 year. 



Methods of Operating 



During the summer months, motor boats 

 and skiffs are used for fishing in the Northern 

 Lakes. About seven hundred men are employed 

 by the larger companies. In addition, there are 

 a number of small operators as well as farmers 

 and homesteaders who fish in the various lakes. 

 The fishing companies have established collect- 

 ing stations and chilling rooms at convenient 



points around many of the lakes. Every day a 

 large gasoline launch visits these stations, re- 

 ceives the catch, and conveys it to a central 

 station. On Lesser Slave Lake, the head station, 

 is Faust, a small town through which the 

 Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia 

 Railway runs. 



At Faust is a large packing station. Here, 

 fish are repacked in boxes containing crushed 

 ice, and kept in the chilling room for ten or 

 twelve hours before being forwarded to the 

 outside market. During the winter, large 

 quantities of ice are cut in the lakes for the 

 summer operations. About 1,200 tons of ice 

 are being stored at Faust for next summer's 

 catch on Lesser Slave Lake. 



On the Buffalo Lake most of the fishing is 

 done in the winter. Two holes are made in the 

 ice. Into one of them the net is inserted. By 

 means of floats and poles, it is carried along under 

 the ice until the next hole is reached and the 

 other end secured. When the net is fully extended 

 it is left for about twenty-four hours. By this 

 time, it has become quite heavy with fish, and 

 the fishermen haul it up, depositing a wriggling 

 silvery mass on the ice. In a few minutes after 

 dressing, the fish are frozen and are ready for 

 shipment to the markets of Chicago, New York 

 and elsewhere. 



About a hundred men have been employed 

 at Buffalo Lake this winter, and approximately 

 600,000 pounds of fish caught. The regulations 

 governing the fishing industry are simple, and 

 framed in such a way that the native son and 

 the man who pioneers receive benefits in keeping 

 with their usefulness to the nation. Hence, the 

 homesteader, the half-breed and the Indians 

 are allowed to fish with nets during the close 

 season, when the waters of the lakes are closed 

 to all save them. 



Regulations for Protection 



During the summer season in the Lesser 

 Slave Lake, not more than 1,500,000 pounds of 

 whitefish may be caught, and not more than 

 500,000 pounds in Lake La Biche. An important 

 regulation for the protection of the fish during 

 the open season is that all nets must be raised 

 from the water from Saturday evening until the 

 following Monday morning, so as to admit of 

 free passage for the fish. 



Buffalo Lake, Lake La Biche and Lesser 

 Slave Lake are only three of hundreds of lakes 

 in Northern Alberta in which whitefish in 

 countless millions exist. It is estimated that 

 with the present degree of exploitation, under 

 strict government control, there are sufficient 

 fish in the Buffalo Lake alone to keep the present 

 companies busy for many years. 



Though fish has been caught in Lesser Slave 

 Lake for many years, and prior to government 

 inspection in a wasteful manner, this body of 

 water still apparently holds an inexhaustible 



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