SALMON FISHERY. 235 



is very good. The farming season is short, but the rapidity 

 and luxuriance of the vegetation is most remarkable. The 

 snow is not off the ground till the middle of May, and yet 

 I have often seen barley in ear and potatoes in blossom on 

 the 20th of July, about which time hay-making commences. 

 The intervale land on the Restigouche river is particularly 

 rich. If the people in this country would only attend to 

 their farms, and make their sons stay at home and help 

 them, they could not fail to do well, as the price of all 

 agricultural produce is good. Instead of this, they look 

 upon their farms as only of secondary importance, as mere 

 adjuncts to lumbering, fishing, &c. 



The Indian name of the Bay of Chaleur is Echeetan 

 Nemachii, or sea of fishes. There is probably no other 

 expanse of water in the world of the same extent in which 

 the finny tribes exist in such multitudes and in such 

 variety. It is a favourite resort of the Salmonidse, a 

 species that delights in pure clean water, in rough and 

 rapid rivers. This is essentially the nature of the rivers 

 in this region, which flow through an uncultivated and 

 rocky country, and in which the Salmonidse find beds to 

 deposit their spawn safe from molestation. Both salmon 

 and trout are particularly large and fine. At the head of 

 the bay, more especially at the Canadian side, salmon 

 average 20 Ibs. in weight. The fishery is a very impor- 

 tant and lucrative business here; it commences on the 

 1st of June, and lasts for two months. During that short 

 period I have known one fisherman take 20,000 Ibs. weight 

 of salmon, which at 6 cents would amount to $1200. It 

 would be hard to estimate the total amount exported 

 from the bay, but it must be very large. The greater 



