THE SALMON FAMILY. 203 



This is to be attributed to many causes : to the clearing up 

 of forests, exposing the surface of the ground to the sun, 

 which has dried up the sources of sylvan brooks, or increased 

 their temperature, and consequently that of the larger waters 

 which they feed, rendering them less suitable for Trout, and 

 promoting the introduction and increase of coarser families 

 of fish. Streams which once had few fish besides Trout in 

 them, now abound with Chub and other inferior fish. The 

 saw-mill, with its high dam obstructing the passage of fish, 

 and its sawdust filling the pools below ; the tannery, with its 

 leached bark, and the discharge of lime mixed with iinpure 

 animal matter extracted from the hides, flowing in and 

 poisoning the Trout, have done more to depopulate our 

 waters in a few years, than whole generations of anglers. It 

 is an old story everywhere along our mountain streams, of 

 how abundant Trout once were ; and the angler is shocked 

 and disgusted on every visit, with the unfair modes practised 

 by the natives and pot-fishers in exterminating them. 



Trout were probably more abundant in our mountain 

 streams at the time of the early settlement of the timber 

 regions by the whites, than they were during the time of 

 occupation by the Indians; for the red man, although he 

 took no more than h-^. could consume at the time, was a 

 destructive fisher ; his weirs and traps at the time of their 

 autumnal descent, the spear on the spawning beds, and his 

 snare or loop, were murderous implements ; the proximity to 

 good fishing-grounds was always a desideratum in placing 

 his wigwam. 



The rivers flowing into Lake Superior, as well as the outlet 

 of that water, the Sault Ste. Marie, contain Brook Trout 

 of large size. A friend who was on a north-west tour, 

 during the summer of 1860, brought me the profile of a 

 Trout, cut out of brown paper, with the following memoranda 



