138 NOVA SCOTT A. 



time in which the fishing is carried on. The spawning 

 season in Nova Scotia is in the months of July, August, 

 and September, and at this season the female lobster 

 carries her eggs about with her under her fan until they 

 are hatched. The legislature probably considered that 

 by making a close season, the catch of lobsters, which is a 

 source of considerable profit, would be greatly lessened, 

 therefore they adopted the alternative of making it 

 illegal to take undersized lobsters or females in spawn. 

 This law is not and cannot be enforced, and the process of 

 killing the bird that lays the golden eggs is being applied 

 to the lobster fishery, as it is to the salmon fishery, and as 

 it is to the lumbering business. 



On still summer . nights, when the tide suits, lobster- 

 spearing parties are the fashion among the Halifax people. 

 A birch-bark torch, carried in the bow of the boat, enables 

 the spearer to see the lobsters crawling about among the 

 seaweed at the bottom. In those bays, where lobsters are 

 really plentiful, I have seen two hundred taken in one 

 tide by a couple of little boys, wading about among the 

 rocks, armed with cod-hooks tied on to sticks. On one 

 occasion, after a heavy gale in New Brunswick, which 

 threw up tons of lobsters on the beach, I saw several 

 acres of potato ground manured with them. To give 

 some idea of the little value put upon lobsters by the 

 country people, I may mention that on some parts of the 

 coast they boil them for their pigs, but are ashamed to be 

 seen eating lobsters themselves. Lobster shells about a 

 house are looked upon as signs of poverty and degrada- 

 tion. 



As regards small game, there is good snipe shooting in 



