16 THE KEPORT UPON No. 13 



Partridge have increased confeiderably, owing, no doubt, to the wise action 

 of the Department in stopping the killing of same, and he is of opinion that 

 next season there will be a very large increase. Grouse are fairly numerous. 



Ducks and geese are also very numerous in the western part of his district. Mink 

 and muskrats are fairly numerous and fully up to the standard of last year. Otter 

 and beaver are increasing every year, but during the past year there is a perceptible 

 increase, and, as far as he is aware, there has been no violation of the law. 



Warden J. H. Willmott, of Beaumaris, reports that during the past season 

 there has been a marked improvement in angling, both as to quantity and size. 

 The presence of the patrol boat "Meenagha," on the Muskoka Lakes, has been the 

 means of many more angling licenses being sold, and has also proved a deterrent 

 to those who have hitherto disregarded the clause in the Act relative to size and 

 number allowed to be taken per day. He may mention that throughout our north- 

 ern districts there are many American fishing clubs, some of these owning land 

 and having very fine club houses erected thereon. As a rule the members spend 

 most of their time fishing, and needless to say, many thousands of our fish are 

 annually caught by these men, who, after taking out their licenses are only acting 

 inside their rights. As an example, he says we will suppose that a club has a 

 membership of thirty men (which is a low estimate, as some have over a hundred). 

 We will say that twenty out of those thirty go out fishing and catch their legal 

 number, these amount to one hundred and sixty a dky, or 4,160 in a month of 26 

 working days. Looking at this matter in the above light, it is apparent that 

 many thousands of fish are annually taken by club men. During the season he has 

 planted the bass ''fingerlings" from the Brantford hatchery, in Lakes Muskoka, 

 Rosseau, Joseph and Gull Lake, also the Lake of Bays. These fingerlings 

 carry far better than the adult bass, the mortality in transit amounting to a mini- 

 mum. It seems a pity that the Dominion Government does not make a change 

 in the close season for lake trout, especially as this has been pointed out to them 

 for the last twenty-one years to his knowledge. The close season at present being 

 for the month of November, and the facts being thus, these fish come into the 

 shoals to spawn about the eighth or tenth of October (and are then caught in num- 

 bers), and are through spawning when the close season sets in, thus permitting 

 fishermen and others to take these fish indiscriminately just at the time they need 

 protection. On account of the Provincial fiscal year ending on the 31st of Oc- 

 tober instead of the 31st of December as heretofore, his report will not be so com- 

 prehensive as othervfise, as any remarks relative to the results of the coming hunting 

 season will necessarily be excluded. Deer are reported plentiful in those sections 

 opened up by the C.P. and C.N.O. Railways, through the district of Parry Sound 

 and part of Nipissing, but owing to the annual increase in the number of hunters, 

 he thinks it is only a question of time before further restrictions are placed on 

 hunters as regards the number allowed to each individual. Moose are reported very 

 plentiful, forty or fifty miles north of the C. P. R. track, and it would appear im- 

 possible to exterminate them, as they will continue to move further back as occasion 

 demands. This region being almost inaccessible to sportsmen, very few are killed 

 by this class of men, but there is no doubt that some fall to the rifles of prospectors, 

 surveyors, etc., for good purposes. Partridges have no doubt profited by the pro- 

 tection they have enjoyed during the past two seasons, there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that some have been killed by the "non-law-abiding class.'' Should we be 

 favoured by good weather during the next breeding season the numbers will be con- 



