104 NEW BRUNSWICK. 



does this to free itself from some salt-water parasite. 

 because after its first arrival it never jumps. Later on, 

 when the rivers get clear and shallow, sturgeon may be 

 seen lying at the bottom like logs of wood. Spearing 

 sturgeon by torchlight is great sport. A well-tempered 

 spearhead and a strong stroke are required to pierce the 

 armour-plated back of the monster. A float or bladder 

 is attached by a string to the spear handle, because when 

 a large fish is struck the spear has to be let go, otherwise 

 the canoe would be upset. 



There are immense numbers of eels in some of the New 

 Brunswick rivers, but these very excellent fish are treated 

 with contempt by the people of the country, who have a 

 strange prejudice against them, founded, as far as I can 

 discover, on their fancied resemblance to the snake. There 

 are at least two, probably three, varieties of the eel. The 

 lamprey eel is a coarse fish, which almost justifies the 

 prejudice which exists, but the common eel is an excellent 

 fish, and when caught in season is fully equal to our best 

 English eels. The eel ascends the rivers in June and 

 July, descending again in the month of October. In 

 winter they remain in the mud at the mouths of the 

 rivers or in the bays or estuaries into which the rivers 

 flow. At this season they are in splendid condition, and 

 are speared by the Indians through holes made for the pur- 

 pose in the ice. The Indians say that in their ascent of the 

 rivers they " portage " round the falls. They certainly can 

 go, like the late President Lincoln's gunboats, wherever 

 the ground is the least damp. I have seen them, old and 

 young together, wriggling themselves in vast quantities 

 over a large flat rock, which was not covered with water, 



