362 SALMON RIVERS 



be the time to do this before there are any or too 

 many vested rights on them. It would not be an 

 experiment either, as proved by what has been 

 done in Norway, where the river conditions are 

 very similar to our own. In that country, fish lad- 

 ders have been built at a moderate outlay on falls 

 of over fifty feet in height. The Escoumain was 

 at one time a good salmon river, but ruined by 

 the dam built on it and the neighboring mill. 

 Previous to this an old fisherman named Moreau 

 told me that he used to net about seventy- five 

 barrels of salmon a year in the river. About 

 thirty years ago lumbering operations were sus- 

 pended for a time and the dam washed away. 

 Salmon at once returned to it. Fortunately 

 there are not many rivers on the North Shore 

 hampered in this way. 



There are a good number of small rivers that 

 could be improved and that would then afford 

 fair sport for one or two rods. As improvements 

 of this kind are costly and the benefit from them 

 only felt after the lapse of a few years, the Gov- 

 ernment should grant the lessees of such rivers as 

 these, liberal conditions and longer leases. To 

 show what can be done by judicious management, 

 I will cite the case of the Jupitagan. When Dr. 

 A. B. Johnson leased it some years ago there 

 were very few fish in it. He only killed about ten 

 salmon during his' first season. He set to work 

 and bought the net-fishing rights near the en- 



