aOll GAME AND FISHERIES. 43 



Game. 



The game laws were well observed. He had one party fined during the 

 spring for shooting ducks. He says nearly every one speaks well of the shortened 

 season for ducks, and one party said he had never shot so many before in Sep- 

 tember. 



He would strongly reconnnend a shortened season for niuskrats, and thinks 

 the close season should be till the first of March. Furs are becoming ?o valuable 

 that much trapping is done. He also thinks there sliould be a license taken for 

 trapping, and that all traps should be tagged, as that would protect the houses 

 better. He Judges there are fifteen hundred acres or more of marsh in his dis- 

 trict, and rats liave been caught up into the thousands. 



Overseer John Johnson, of Port Hope, reports that the laws were observed by 

 all fishermen in his district, and there have been no complaints that the law was 

 being broken. He has not found any infringements of the law himself, and quite 

 a number of people came to him to find out the open season for the different game, 

 and also for fishing. 



Overseer C. J. Kerr, of Tlamilton, reports that spearing in Burlington Bay 

 during last wdnter through the ice was enjoyed by a larger number of men whose 

 occupations do not provide them with work in winter. Of course some do it for 

 sport alone, but not many. This winter spearing is a great help in keeping down 

 the carp, as one man speared 600 lbs. in one day, which proves that the carp are 

 not lying dormant during the winter. He judges that the catch of carp and pike 

 would be about 600 lbs. for each man, and as there are 157 men, this means 94,300 

 lbs., and, as far as lie knows, no violations were committed among the spearsmen. 



The fishermen in Lake Ontario fronting on Wentworth Co. had about an 

 average catch of whitefish and trout. The catch of herring during the fall of 

 1909 fell off on shore, l)ut tlio?e who fished Avell out in the lake did well. The 

 catch promises to be a better one this fall, both in size and numbers, and taking all 

 in all, the catch this year is satisfactory to the fishermen. 



The lot system in Wentworth, especially on Burlington Beach, as well as the 

 shore of Saltfleet Tp., east of the beach, is the only system workable, taking into 

 consideration the larger number of small fishermen who only fish, say, 1,000 yards 

 of net near to the shore. He holds in his possession a paper signed by all his 

 fishermen, Avith the exception of two, stating they are satisfied with the present 

 lot system in the County of Wentworth. These two dissatisfied fishermen would 

 not be satisfied if they had the whole of Lake Ontario fronting on Wentworth 

 County to themselves. However, owing to the death of Daniel McGuin this fall, 

 a very old fisherman, he says he will be able to regulate the lots on the beach to 

 the better advantage and satisfaction of the fishermen. The angling and trolling 

 for pike in the bay has come up to the usual good fishing. One man and his wife 

 caught forty pike in one day with chub bait, and reports say that the bass fishing 

 was fairly good at the piers. He got no complaints of a serious nature of a short- 

 age in black bass. The black bass are in the bay, if the so-called sportsmen only 

 knew how to catch them. 



He pollution of the waters of Burlington Bay. Owing to the sewers of 

 Hamilton running into the w^aters of the bay by the inlets, it looks to him as if 

 in the near future the south shore of the bay will be in a bad shape to find any 



