3t> THE REPORT OF THE No. 31 



of fish have ruled very high all season, so taking everything into consider- 

 ation this has been the most profitable season the fishermen have had for a 

 number of years. The fishermen all say that there should be no gill net 

 fishing allowed in any waters that can be fished with pound nets; indeed, 

 they view with alarm the introduction of gill nets in any part of Lake Erie. 

 They would be all satisfied if the fishing of the gill nets were only abolished 

 for all time to come; they all say that if gill nets are allowed to get a foot- 

 hold in Lake Erie, they will be compelled to stop fishing with pound nets. 

 He thinks this would be a very serious state of affairs. In the first place 

 there would be a very great decrease in the revenue of the Province, and 

 there would be a large amount of capital that is now invested in the pound 

 net fishing industry that would not be worth ten cents on the dollar, to say 

 nothing about the large number of men that would be thrown out of em- 

 ployment if such a calamity should come to pass. He says there is only 

 one remedy to ward off this fatal day, and that is to license no gill nets, 

 and to have a close season on all kinds of fish from the 15th November to 

 April 1st. He says he would like to say a word about this gill net business. 

 From what he can learn it is mostly carried on with the Booth Co's tugs, 

 and he fails to see why any concession be granted by the Canadian Govern- 

 ment to this grasping corporation. Then there is also the fact that during 

 the close season on the American side of Lake Erie, there are scores of 

 American gill net tugs engaged in fishing. At such time it is against the 

 law to bring any fish to the American market caught in American waters, 

 so to evade the law these tugs say that the fish were caught in Canadian 

 waters; and he believes from what he can learn that the fish are caught 

 in Canadian waters, for it is very well known that these American fisher- 

 men do not lay up their tugs nearly as soon as out protective cruiser goes 

 into her winter quarters. Some seasons they are out for nearly a month 

 after the cruiser is out of commission. He says this should not be, and 

 thinks that if the two Governments could only come to some understanding 

 and make it against the law to take fish in any waters during this close sea- 

 son, it would put. a stop to a large amount of thi(s very destructive business. 

 He says he can call it by no milder term, for surely any one who has given 

 this matter any thought can come to no other conclusion than that it is this 

 wholesale destruction of the fish during the spawning season by these gill 

 nets that is responsible for the large decrease of late years of the whitefish 

 and herring catch in Lake Erie. 



About the carp in Rondeau Bay, he says the men who are engaged in 

 the work of catching them have not as yet been very successful in making 

 any very great inroads into this most destructive robber of all kinds of game 

 fish, but he is pleased to state that they are all making preparations to go 

 at this work on a larger scale the coming season. He says these men have 

 all lived up to the very letter of the law. He has been amongst them a 

 good many times during the season and has examined their ponds, and has 

 not at any time found anything in the ponds that should not be there. He 

 thinks there should be some parent bass put in the bay so as to keep up the 

 supply of this game fish. The Eau is a very popular resort for a large 

 number of foreign tourists, and as these people spend a lot of money in that 

 locality, there should be something done to keep them there as long as pos- 

 sible, but if the fishing gets scarce they will most surely go somewhere 

 else. 



District Overseer Lamarsh, Wheatley, Western Peninsula, reports that 

 he was over the Detroit River and part of Lake St. Clair and Kent shore 

 several times. In June last he found that some American fishermen had 



