168 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



or below Quebec which knew him not. It may sound 

 strange now-a-days to hear that the River St. Charles, which 

 joins the St. Lawrence at Quebec, was one of his favorite 

 haunts, and that many a lordly salmon fell a victim of his 

 rod between Scott's Bridge and the Lorette Falls, though the 

 former is only a mile from the city limits, and the Falls not 

 more than seven. But this was over half a century ago. 



The Indian Tahourhenche told Mr. Nettle that his grand- 

 father generally killed 150 to 200 salmon during the 

 season in the St. Charles, with the fly, while an old resident 

 on the river claimed that his average catch was about seventy 

 during the season. Since that time the salmon had apparent- 

 ly deserted the river, but had evidently not been completely 

 exterminated, for about the year 1850 they again appeared, 

 though not by any means in their former abundance, and the 

 greatest number Mr. Nettle killed during a summer, fishing 

 some three evenings in a week for a month or less, was from 

 fifteen to eighteen. 



In 1896, Mr. Nettle sent the following account of his 

 early fish-cultural operations to the writer of this report : 



"In 1857, previous to my first 

 inspection of the fisheries, I wrote 

 to the Government for the necessary 

 authority to construct an Ovarium 

 (or Hatchery) in a building attach- 

 ed to my office in Quebec. On my 

 return from the Gulf in the fall, I 

 found official letters awaiting me at 

 the Saguenay, with one dated 15th 

 August, from Sir Etienne Tache ; . 

 Premier and commissioner, sanction- 

 ing the construction of these novel 

 works. It was late in the season 



Mr Richard 

 before the Ovarium was completed, 



hence came the difficulty of procuring ova to stock the 

 spawning boxes. By dint of perseverance, however, I 

 was enabled to procure some very healthy trout, from the 

 Jacques Cartier, between St. Catherines and the bridge at 



