NEW BRUNSWICK. 137 



lions of undeveloped spawn ; mercenary white men, with an 

 eye to present emolument only, might stretch their nets 

 across every channel so as to capture all the salmon that at- 

 tempted to run up. Those were glorious days of freedom, 

 when every one could do as he pleased, and liberty was full- 

 est license to cut off one's own and his neighbor's future sup- 

 ply of fish-food. But now, the oppressed and law-beleaguered 

 anjrler has no show at aU unless he leases a river himself or 

 can manage " to get a rod in" through the acquaintance or 

 courtesy of a friend and lessee. To be sure, the favored few 

 who lease the rivers can count the trophies of their summer's 

 fishing by the hundred or thousand, and find their pri\aleges 

 becoming more valuable year by year, as the stock of fish in- 

 creases by protected propagation ; but then it seems hardly 

 fair that those who purchase monopolies or exclusive rights 

 should enjoy them alone. They ought at least to divide 

 with the outside public. Besides, since the dawn of the era 

 of leases and protection a new impulse has been given to 

 fly-fishing. Every pin-hook fisherman is suddenly seized 

 with a yearning to catch salmon. ISTo other kind of fish will 

 satisfy them. There are no restrictions upon trout-rods in 

 any of the streams ; but trout are too small game. What 

 sweetness grows in fruit that is forbidden ! 



Just imagine a hundred tyros on a single stream, wielding 

 rods as cumbrous as the pine-tree top with which Polyphemus 

 bobbed for whales, and threshing the afr with a swis-s-sJi 

 that imitates a small tornado passing ! What chances for a 

 " glorious rise " when their entomological devices drop into 

 the water with a splash, or their lines fall flat with many an 

 inextricable coil and snarl ! What fortunes small boys might 

 make by chmbing trees for the flies, gut-lengths, and leaders 

 which the neophytes have tangled in the overarching hmbs 

 while fishing ! By all means, Messrs. Fish Commissioners, 

 open the rivers to the indiscriminate public, so that all may 

 have a chance. 



At Fredericton we tread the threshold of the " Salmo " 



