230 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



efforts at their extinction liave at last prevailed ; and, 

 except a few stragglers, they have ceased from out our 

 waters." 



Cape Sable being, then, the south-easternmost point 

 in the salmon's range, we first find him entering the 

 rivers of the south coast of Nova Scotia very early in 

 March, long before the snow has left the woods ; thus 

 disproving an assertion that he will not ascend a river 

 till clear of snow water. At this time he meets the 

 spent fish, or kelts, returning from their dreary residence 

 under the ice in the lakes, and these gaunt, hungry fish 

 may be taken with most annoying frequency by the 

 angler for the new comers. 



As a broad rule, with, however, some singular excep- 

 tions, the run of salmon now proceeds wdth tolerably 

 progressive regularity along the coast to the eastward 

 and northward, the bulk of the fish having ascended the 

 Nova Scotian rivers by the middle of June. The excep- 

 tions referred to occur in the case of a large river on the 

 eastern coast of Nova Scotia — the Saint Mary — and some 

 of the tributaries of the Bay of Fundy, in which there is 

 a run of fish in March, as on the south-eastern coast. 

 This fact militates somewhat against the theory of the 

 salmon migrating in winter to warmer waters to return 

 in a body in early spring and ascend their native rivers, 

 entering them progressively. 



In the Bay of Chaleurs the season is somewhat more 

 delayed ; the fish are not fairly in the fresh water before 

 the middle of June, which is also the time for their 

 ascending the rivers of Labrador. 



At midsummer in Nova Scotia, and in the middle of 

 July higher up in the gulf, the grilse make their appear- 



