14 THE REPORT OF THE No. 31 



a pound, which is said to leave a handsome profit Those who arc fishing for them on 

 an extensive scale have erected ponds, into which during the warm months, when 

 the market is flat, the fish are placed. They are fed until the fall season, and then 

 marketed. Friends of the carp say that its edible qualities are very much underrated, 

 and that when properly prepared and cooked it is a most palatable fish. If salted for 

 a few hours previous to being made ready for eating, it will lose much of its muddy or 

 suampy flavor, and be generally improved. It has been favorably recommended by 

 an American writer as food for bass, being a prolific breeder, and subsisting on 

 vegetation. If it would cease to grow after attaining a length of four or five inches, 

 perhaps too much could not be argued in its favor for this purpose, buf it would be in 

 our opinion nothing short of a calamity if these fish should be introduced into our 

 beautiful inland lakes. So far, it is believed, they have not yet found their way there, 

 aad our bass waters have escaped) their depredations. The damage to the wild tice 

 fields is now believed to result, not wholly from the disturbance of the roots of the plant 

 by the carp, but these fish, being granivorous as well as herbivorous in their 

 habits, pick up the ripened grain in the water, and the seed is thus lost. We are inform- 

 ed that the stomach of one recently caught at the St. Clair Flats was opened, and at 

 least a double handful of rice taken therefrom ; and as an example of their destructive - 

 ness upon the spawn of other fish, it may be mentioned that a gallon of spawn, which 

 had been devoured, was taken from an eighteen-pounder — a weight which the carp 

 frequently attains. 



Sturgeon. 



The quantity of sturgeon taken throughout the Province shows a considerable 

 falling oft", though in certain quarters (notably Lake Nipissing) there has been an 

 increase, the amount taken in 1903 exceeding that taken in 1902 b} 62,650 pounds. The 

 demand for sturgeon has, however, increased, and prices have been higher than in 

 former years, the average wholesale price for the meat in the New York market having 

 been fifteen cents per pound. The wholsale price for the roe in the same market has 

 vsried from 80 cents to $1 per pound, according to quality, a higher pri.;e being paid 

 for that of the best color and flavor. Our finett caviare comes from the Lake of the 

 Woods, the roe of the sturgeon of these waters being as a rule larger than of the 

 sturgeon of the Great Lakes. The process of making caviare is one which has to be 

 carried on with much care, for unless the proper quantity of salt is used Hie ^tiole 

 batch may be ruined, a little too much being as disastrous as too little. The kind of 

 salt, too, is not the least important requisite, native salt not being suitable. The Ger- 

 man brand is that most generally, if not universally, preferred. Thirteen pounds to one 

 hundred pounds of eggs are the proper proportions; and the keeping qualities of 

 the caviare are said to be improved by the addition of one pound of preservative. The 

 total output of sturgeon this year (in Ontario) was 494,250 pounds. The largest speci- 

 men reported to have been caught was that taken by a Lake Erie fisherman, which turn- 

 ed the scale at 190 pounds. It yielded 40 pounds of roe, and for the meat and roe he 

 received the sum of $50 — as he said, the price of a first-class cow. But the value of 

 the sturgeon does not end with the meat and the roe, for there is another and ver\ 

 valuable product manufactured from the bladders, viz., isinglass. It is used by brewers 

 for clarifying purposes. The custom her* is to save and dry the bladders, for which 

 40 cents per pound aire realized. They are then exported to the United States, manu- 

 factured, and re-sojd in this country at from $1 to $1.25 per pound. Until the Pro- 

 vince pssumed the administration, almost any implement of capture was permitted to 

 be nsed in the taking of sturgeon, but a recent Dominion Order-in-Council prohibits 

 their being taken with bare hooks and grappling irons, and, indeed, in any other man- 

 ner than with pound and gill nets, the latter to have meshes of not less than 12 inches 

 extension measure. Another important provision in the same Order is. that none 

 shall be taken under four feet in length The benefits to be derived from these re^ula- 



