IX 

 SPORT ON THE SALMON RIVERS OF EASTERN CANADA 



IN contrasting Canadian inland waters with those of the mother- 

 country, one cannot fail to be struck by the difference in the 

 character of the trout fishing. Not only in remote sheets of water 

 lying amid sequestered solitudes, which have remained and will 

 continue for centuries un visited by the angler, but ' even in lakes 

 and streams of the settled districts, when trout are found feeding, 

 they are extremely unsophisticated in dealing with the artificial 

 fly. Not that for trouting some occasions may not prove far more 

 favourable than others. Dear to the heart of the honest fisherman 

 everywhere are a few fleecy clouds, not sufficiently dense to interfere 

 with the warmth of the sunshine, yet serving to veil the intensity 

 of the light : sweet the curl of a gentle south-west breeze coming 

 across the meadows to darken the water. Yet such conditions 

 are apparently of less importance in Canada than in England. 

 Cautious approaches and the cast made on the knees by the chalk- 

 stream fisherman would cause no small merriment to the young 

 urchins who are given to the practice of driving out trout from under- 

 neath the shelter of overhanging alder thickets vi et armis for the 

 purpose of ' fly-ing ' them, even in small and shallow pools. 



When it comes to Salmo salar, however, it cannot be said that 

 his habits contrast very sharply with his representatives in the 

 old world. He seems to enjoy life more keenly perhaps, and parts 

 with it after braver struggles. The rush at the fly of a thirty- 

 pounder of the York or Grand Cascapedia is sometimes almost 

 tiger-like in its fierceness. Something may be due to environment 

 to account for this. Perhaps the more highly aerated waters of 

 the rapid streams, and wild revels in the midst of broiling torrent 

 and mad cascades, may develop strength. The late Sir Donald 

 Stewart used to say that ' salmon fishing in the heavy tumbling 

 rivers of Canada is to salmon fishing in Scotland what tiger shooting 

 is to deer stalking ' . 



Alike is the Canadian salmon, however, to his European brother 

 in that there are times when he cannot be enticed by a well-flung 

 fly ; when he puts man's petty artifices utterly at defiance ; in 



6 



