1909 GAME AND FISHERIES. 



men of Pt. Bruce were unable to get out when there was a better season on account 

 of the water in the harbour being so shallow. The quality of fish caught has been 

 exceptionally good this year. The close season as well as all Fishery Laws were well 

 observed, only one case of illegal fishing coming to my notice. That was a hoop net 

 being fished in the Otter Creek, the net was confiscated and shipped to the Depart- 

 ment, the party operating it was not discovered, he heard of a great many com- 

 plaints from farmers for not being allowed to catch coarse fish such as suckers and 

 mullet, for their own use in streams which flow through or near their own property. 

 The Game Laws were also well observed. Black fquirrel, about the only game in 

 his district, were very numerous this season. 



Lake Ontario and Bay of Quinte. 



Overseer David Conger, of West Lake, reports that the catch of whitefish and 

 salmon trout has been good this year; they have increased about 20 per cent, over 

 last year. Angling has not been as good as last year on account of so 

 many coarse fish in the Lakes. He seized about fifteen hundred yards of 

 gill nets in the waters of East and West Lake which he sent to Capt. A. 

 Hunter, of Belleville, but could not find the owner of the net?. He has 

 been over his territory on different occasions and is satisfied that the licensed fisher- 

 men observed the laws. Ee game, there was any amount of ducks in East and 

 West Lake in the spring of the year and in the fall of the year. Musk rats are 

 very plentiful, trappers got as high as forty-three cents for their skins. Partridge 

 are very scarce. Black equirrels are increasing. The game laws have l)oen well 

 observed. 



Overseer P. W. Dafoe, of Napanee, reports that having been appointed Overseer 

 in March last he cannot speak of the catch in former years, but from all he can 

 learn from the fishermen and as he inspected in that town thirty or forty barrels 

 per day in the good runs, he thinks fishing was better than former years. Over 

 three-quarters were exported, the price was so high in the American market little 

 was consumed at home. 



No violations of the Act have come to his knowledge, though he has made several 

 midnight searches. The law has been well looked after. His trying time is in 

 the spring when the pickerel come up the falls in the town and can go no farther, 

 and boys kill them with sticks and stones. In former years there was bad work 

 there. He has a plan that he thinks will stop all abuse in the future. 



Salmon River has a greater flow of water than the Napanee River and is much 

 more productive of fish; its source is at the foot of Missoga Lake, its mouth near 

 Point Ann, Bay of Quints, having a run of about one hundred miles through 

 numerous lakes all well stocked with pike, pickerel, bass and nearly all the coarse 

 fish. On his first trip up the river he found at Kingsford, western boundary of the 

 township of Richmond, dams gone, mills burned, the people grumbling that no fish 

 were below. The cheese factory had dumped a quantity of whey in the river which 

 hurt the fish below. At Forest Mills there are two dams; at the lower dam the 

 fall is eighteen feet. No salmon ever get above the falls. At Roblin there is one 

 dam and he does not think there is a proper fishway on this river, but the sawdust 

 is well looked after. He thinks at Roblin some illegal fishing has been done. He 

 could not get the names but he has set traps. 



Line Lake is some three miles long and half mile wide, and is part of the 

 northern boundary of the township of Richmond and has bass, pickerel, pike and 



