232 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



salmon of forty and fifty pounds are still taken ; in 

 former years, sixty pounds and over was not an uncom- 

 mon weidit. The salmon of the Labrador rivers are 

 not remarkable for size : the average weight of two hun- 

 dred fish taken with the fly in the river St. John in 

 July, 1863, was ten pounds, the largest being twenty- 

 three ; and the largest salmon ever taken by the rod on 

 this coast weighed forty pounds. 



The average weight of the grilse taken in Nova Scotia 

 and the Gulf appears to be four pounds. Fish of seven 

 or eight pounds which I have taken in American rivers 

 are, to my thinking, salmon of another year s growth, 

 and present an appreciable difierence of form to the slim 

 and graceful grilt. In the latter part of November, the 

 time when the salmon in the fresh water are in the act 

 of spawning, a run of fish occurs along the coast of Nova 

 Scotia. They are taken at sea by nets ofi" the headlands, 

 and are, as affirmed by the fishermen, proceeding to the 

 southward. Brought to market, they are found to be 

 nearly all females, in prime condition, with the ova 

 very small and in an undeveloped state, similar to that 

 contained in a fish on its first entrance into fresh water. 

 Where can these salmon be going at the time when the 

 rest of their species are busily engaged in reproduction ? 

 Another of the many mysteries attached to the natural 

 history of this noble fish ! In fresh running water the 

 salmon takes the artificial fly or minnow, whether from 

 hunger or offence it does not clearly appear ; in salt 

 water he is not unfrequently taken on the coast of Nova 

 Scotia by bait-fishing at some distance from shore, and 

 in sixty or seventy fathoms water. The caplin, smelt, 

 and sand-eel, contribute to his food. 



