1908 GAME AND FISHERIES. 



the Department to abolisli family angling permits, in consequence of their 

 miserable system of subterfuge and evasion. 



Since referring as above to the International Commissioners, a draft 

 of the proposed treaty, result of the Commission's work, has been loaned 

 me by a party to whom it was sent, and endorsed by the United States mem- 

 ber of the Commission. To say that I read it with surprise and indignation, 

 is to put it mildly. Of course, it would be very nice, and eminently satis- 

 factory to our American friends, to be allowed to come when and where they 

 choose into the waters of the Province, and without let or hindrance, or 

 restrictions as to numbers, take our bass and other fish for the alleged pur- 

 pose of re-stocking their own depleted waters. This would result in deplet- 

 ing ours. It is also proposed to allow Americans holding licenses or permits 

 issued by United States authorities to angle in certain waters of the Province 

 irrespective of provincial authority. These gentlemen also propose to 

 improve the fisheries by abolishing close seasons. If the Commissioners 

 responsible for these one-sided measures expect them to be tamely submitted 

 to by the people of Ontario, they, the Commissioners, must have an abiding 

 faith in the Barnum theory, that people like to be humbugged. 



Referring to the proposed Treaty, in which it is proposed to have the 

 North Channel of Georgian Bay included as being International waters, I 

 take the liberty of copying from the forty-first Annual Report of Depart- 

 ment of Marine and Fisheries for 1907-8, issued in 1909, page 182, as fol- 

 lows : 



''General Description of Georgian Bay and Contiguous Waters. ' 



"The fisheries of Georgian Bay and the North Channel are in maiiy 

 respects the most valuable fresh water fishing grounds in the world. They, 

 are so for two main reasons : The physical and biological conditions which 

 they provide are precisely those most favourable to fish life, especially cer- 

 tain species of prime value for commercial and food purposes, while they 

 possess the advantage of being exclusively within the Canadian territory, 

 and not liable to injury and contrariety in regulations resulting from divided 

 international jurisdiction and control. With the exception of Lake Superior, 

 the vast area thus opened to the operations of Canadian fishermen exclu- 

 sively, and restricted by law to exploitation by British subjects under the 

 fishery regulations of Canada, is larger than any other inland fishing rrea 

 in the Dominion, being more than twice the area of the Canadian portion 

 of Lake Ontario, almost exactly twice the extent of the Lake Erie fishing 

 grounds, and more than one thousand square miles vaster than the part of 

 Lake Huron which lies within British territorial boundaries. 



The area of the Canadian waters in the Great Lakes may be estimated 

 as follows : Lake Ontario less than 4,000 square miles ; Lake Erie about 

 5,000 square miles; Lake Huron 11,000 square miles; whereas Georgian Bay 

 and the North Channel exceed 12,000 square miles in extent. From CoUing- 

 wood, at the northern end of the bay, to the outlet of St. Mary's River, the 

 distance is 225 miles, and the greatest width is 54 miles. The fact that in 

 the Great Lakes and other contiguous waters Canada shares the fisheries with 

 the United States, and that fully one half of the area of these waters is 

 within the bounds of the Republic to the south. 



It is entirely different with the Georgian Bay fisheries, for they are 

 wholly within Canadian limits, and under Dominion laws and regulations, 

 and no such disadvatage affects them as affects the Great Lake fisheries." 



