28 REPORT OF THE No. 32- 



500,000 pickerel put in last year are beginning to show, on several occasions 

 having been seen in thousands down near the beach, three and four inches 

 long. In a few years he hopes to see good results from this consignment. 



The usual spearing through the ice on the bay was permitted, and 93 

 persons took advantage of the privilege, but owing to the sudden breaking 

 up of the ice and mild weather, and the dirty state of the water, fishing was 

 almost a complete failure. 



An attempt was again made down at the beach by some four fishermen 

 there to carry on fishing in the bay in open defiance of the law, and it was 

 there he gave two of them the race of their life. He pursued them by boat 

 to land and then continued the chase by land, and made them drop their nets 

 to get away. The nets and fish he seized, but the men escaped. He also 

 seized several other nets in the bay from time to time, and effectually stop- 

 ped illegal fishing there, but he suggests that a good man be placed on the 

 beach continually during the next spring to assist him in enforcing the game 

 and fishery laws, as he cannot be down there all the time. This he thinks 

 would put a stop to all illegal fishing there. 



He says he has had a great deal of trouble in regard to the whitefish caught 

 in Lake Erie off the Counties where the close season has been abolished. A 

 dealer in Hamilton states that he got all that was caught off Haldimand and 

 Monck — 11,000 worth. It appears that the fishermen look to November up 

 there for their main supply of fish during the year, as the whitefish come to 

 shore at that time to spawn on the reefs and rocks, and it is at this time they 

 are caught. All the fish he saw in the dealers' stores were spawners, and 

 when he questions the dealers they slap an invoice in his face and say their 

 fish come from these open counties, and nothing can be done in the matter. 



Regarding the game he says, that at the opening of spring the wild 

 ducks came to Burlington Bay in thousands, and remained up to the latter 

 part of May. A few snap-shots were taken at them, but on the whole they were 

 very seldom molested, one man being convicted for illegal shooting. Rail 

 and other water-fowl were in abundance during the spring months. 



Considerable difficulty was experienced in protecting the early fall 

 ducks, some of the sportsmen making a dash into the Dundas Marsh during 

 the month of August, but after all very little actual killing was done. The 

 duck hunting in Burlington Bay this fall was not of the best, some claiming 

 that the carp had destroyed the feeding grounds, but I cannot understand 

 how this can be, for thousands of ducks are to be seen on the very same feed- 

 ing grounds in the spring, and scarcely any in the fall. He suggests that 

 sportsmen put feed upon the grounds they wish to shoot, as was done at 

 Gage's Inlet with great success. Something of this kind will have to be done 

 if we wish to keep the ducks in our waters, for any length of time, during 

 their fall migration to the south. Some shooting from a steam launch was 

 done during the fall, but the prosecution and eonviction of one party of five 

 put a stop to the practice. 



A large flock of birds known as the * 'Guillemot" visited the bay during 

 the fall, some few being shot before it was discovered what they were. This 

 is the third time that these birds have visited the bay in thirty years. 



Muskrats he says have been very plentiful in the marshes, at least three 

 thousand pelts being taken during the year. 



Regarding insectivorous birds he says; that human inclination to des- 

 troy bird life has not abated to any great extent since he was a boy, and a 

 great deal of work is necessary to prevent men and boys killing off our song 

 birds. 



