TROUT 349 



but perhaps they have the instinct of the cat and 

 kill for pleasure. 



Trout were unmercifully netted and seined dur- 

 ing the period that the Hudson's Bay Co. had the 

 monopoly of our northern rivers, and to this fact, 

 perhaps, we can ascribe the continued supply of 

 salmon in spite of the excessive netting. Experi- 

 ences and observations go to prove that one can- 

 not have an abundance of trout on a salmon river 

 without the latter suffering from it. Prior to 1876 

 no salmon had ever been killed on the Trinity 

 River with the fly. Several noted anglers had 

 given it a trial: Dr. Adamson, Messrs. W. F. 

 Whitcher and Richard Nettle, and two English 

 gentlemen named Moore and Dalmitch, who had 

 got a lease of it, but all* of them without success 

 for salmon, though any amount of trout was taken 

 and it was thus considered as a trout river only. 

 Early in 1876 I applied for and got a free permit 

 from the Marine and Fisheries Department at 

 Ottawa to give the river a trial for salmon. In 

 July of the same year I spent a week on it and 

 killed two salmon and a few grilse, and enough 

 trout to fill three and a half barrels ! The follow- 

 ing season Judge Henry was induced to lease it 

 and killed eight salmon, and the task of reducing 

 the quantity of trout on it was begun. Three to 

 four hundred of these would sometimes be taken 

 in one haul of the net in a pool. With the dim- 

 inished numbers of the trout the salmon score 



