45 



number of nets than are now licensed, three 

 or four times the number of salmon, and the 

 two governments of Quebec and New Bruns- 

 wick could get a proportionate increase in the 

 rentals from ungranted water fronts. They 

 certainly would fetch it with tenfold the number 

 of salmon in the river, and there could be no 

 question as to the feasibility of having them 

 there in a few years. 



The rod fishing in this river now yields about 

 one thousand to twelve hundred salmon and 

 grilse yearly, which is nothing like what it 

 should do. It is impossible to get any reliable 

 statistics as to the catches of the netters, as it 

 is their policy to return as few fish as possible. 

 As an example of this, some years since I, 

 with a friend and the head guardian of the 

 river, went down to the tide head early one 

 morning to ascertain the catch of a certain net 

 stretched more than halfway across the channel. 

 Three men were lifting it when we reached them, 

 and we counted in the meshes of the net ninety 

 salmon. I reported this to the Commissioner 

 of Marine and Fisheries at Ottawa, and a few 

 weeks thereafter received from him the affidavits 

 of five or six persons, who swore they lifted the 



