54 



THE REPOET UPON No. 13 



<;lose season. Mink, as usual, are scarce, but the close season will help them, if it 

 is left as it is now until December 1st, as they can get under the ice and snow, if 

 there is any about that time. The game laws have been very well observed, but 

 tie finds it necessary to keep moving a good part of the time to keep it that way. 



Overseer John Traves, of Fraserhurg, le^orts thai the bass and trout fishing 

 has been good this season. 



Deer was about the same as the year before, most of the hunting parties get- 

 ting their number. Ducks were very plentiful last fall around that vicinity. 

 Partridges are on the increase very fast. Beaver and otter are very plentiful. 

 Mink is very scarce. Muskrats are very numerous. 



The laws have been well observed, there having been no violations. He has 

 watched and taken a great interest in preserving the game. 



Overseer S. Turner, of London, reports the game and fishery laws in that dis- 

 trict of the County of Middlesex as being very fairly observed. There have been 

 flome infringements of catching undersized bass, but the guilty parties have been 

 mostly small boys, whom he has let go with a warning. 



Bass, pickerel and pike fishing has been very good there since the nets have 

 been removed from the river. Fishing would have been much better if they had 

 had a more favorable spring. This was owing to the fact that when the water was 

 high and suitable for the fish to run, the river was full of ice, and when the ice 

 •went the water also went, which stopped the run. However, the fishing, on the 

 whole, was very good there. 



The game laws have also been very well observed there. The only trouble 

 he has had was with a fish dealer, who was displaying and offering for sale wood 

 hare or cotton tail rabbits after the 16th January. He warned him several times, 

 but he persisted in saying they were not wood hare or cotton tail rabbits, but 

 •only common rabbits, and to find out who was correct he had him prosecuted 

 before the police magistrate of that city. He secured a verdict, but lost on the 

 appeal. The magistrate's opinion was that the game law was broken, but the judge 

 on the appeal quashed the conviction, on the grounds that they were not wood 

 hare or cotton tails, but simply a wild rabbit, and a nuisance to the community at 

 large. This prosecution has been the means of making the law governing this 

 matter very plain, as the Act now states that the game has to be handed to the 

 nearest officer of the department for distribution to charitable institutions. 



There is only one fault or complaint he has with the game laws, and that is 

 as regards the season for woodcock. He thinks the season should be from 1st 

 October to 15th November, both days inclusive. His reason for this is they are a 

 migrating bird, and always leave there about the full of the moon in October, or 

 after the first hard frost, and their neighbors to the South receive the benefit of 

 their breeding ground. 



Overseer 0. Twamley, of Cavan, reports that the trout are getting very scarce 

 in a creek in his division, and he would like to have fishing in it prohibited for 

 two years. The bass were very late in coming up this spring, and did not leave 

 their beds until long after the 15th June, but were as plentiful as ever. 



Ducks are very scarce there this season, while partridge are more plentiful. 



The law has been fairly well observed. 



Overseer John Watson, of Caesarea, reports that matters are getting better 

 all the time as regards the keeping of the game and fishery laws. The maskinonge 

 fishing has been splendid the past summer, and on his trips around the lakes he 



