16 THE REPORT OF THE [ No. 68 



might properly be leased for angling purposes, and to give their area, location 

 and any other information useful for the Department to have in dealing with the 

 matter, and replies were received, with particulars as to a number of lakes in 

 each division. But the acquaintance of the overseer with the topography of his 

 district is found to be so limited that the information obtained is not sufficient 

 to enable the Department to arrive at a conclusion as to the lakes which may 

 properly be leased, and which should be reserved for public fishing. Some more 

 reliable means should, therefore, in the opinin of the undersigned, be adopted to 

 obtain the information required. It may be said that in Quebec, where a policy 

 of leasing lakes has been approved for some years, the plan adopted was to de- 

 pute competent officers to make an inspection of the lakes and report thereon ; 

 and these inspections seem to have been continued for a number of years. It is 

 respectfully suggested that a similar plan might in the first instance be adopted 

 in this province in, say, the sparsely settled or newly surveyed townships where 

 it would be impossible to obtain by any other means the information desired. 

 In the older portions of the Province it may be assumed that there are few 

 lakes which can be so disposed of, as, until within a very recent date, no re- 

 servation of the lands under or surrounding the smaller lakes was made in the 

 patents. It would be important, too, in the opinion of the undersigned, that the 

 investigations should be confined to districts where it would be possible to ob- 

 tain canoemen acquainted with the routes and portages, and where the present 

 means of communication render it possible to reach the lakes decided to be leased 

 within a reasonable time. The inspections might be extended as new means of 

 communication make it possible to reach with greater facility the more distant . 

 lakes, and as applications therefor increase. In the instructions to the surveying 

 and exploring parties sent out during the year into our new districts, a paragraph 

 was inserted at the suggestion of the undersigned requiring them to report upon 

 the fisheries in the territory which they were to explore. Those of the reports 

 which have been examined indicate that the lakes and streams in these sections 

 teem with brook trout and many other valuable varieties of fish. The leasing of 

 angling privileges in the lakes and rivers of Quebec yields an annual revenue of 

 over $35,000 in rentals ranging from $5 to $500, and though less favorable con- 

 ditions exist in Ontario than in Quebec, with its far-famed trout lakes and 

 salmon rivers, all comparatively easy of access, the revenue to be. derived from 

 this source in this Province should ultimately be considerable. 



Information should also be obtained with reference to such lakes as might 

 properly be leased for fishing therein for commercial purposes, a number of 

 applications having already been received for the leasing of lakes for 

 such purpose in different parts of the Province. A general policy on 

 the subject should, as soon as may be, be approved and announced, but 

 more especially with reference to the lakes in our new districts, which are 

 practically unprotected, and in which unlimited opportunies for poach- 

 inc are afforded. These lakes should be regarded as so many farms, the 

 property of the Province, and be dealt with in the same way — leased or rented 

 for a number or years — the Province being the landlord, as it were, and the per- 

 son desiring the lease the tenant — the lease to contain such conditions as would 

 ensure the property being kept in a fertile condition, by limiting the number of 

 nets that could be fished, the quantity of fish to be taken annually, the saving 

 and planting of spawn, fry, etc., etc. If such a plan were adopted, these lakes 

 would be made to yield a revenue in perpetuity, while if the present system of 

 issuing licenses therein were followed, they would in a short time be exhausted. 

 Depleted of their contents they would be valueless, either from a revenue or food 

 producing standpoint. It is said that an acre of water properly cultivated can 

 be made to produce as much revenue as an acre of land. 



