76 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



issue to one individual a commercial license for a sufficient amount of 

 net to meet this local requirement, but trading from such a license out- 

 ride of the immediate locality should not be permitted. In all instances, 

 however, where either a domestic or commercial license was applied for, 

 •each case should be considered on its merits and individually investi- 

 gated by a competent official, for it could under no circumstances be 

 expedient or desirable to issue such privileges except and only where 

 actual necessity was established. 



Your Commissioner would, therefore, recommend: — 



(1) That the provisions contained in the proposed internationaJ 

 fishery regulations in regard to netting under the ice, and the use of 

 ■spears, grappling hooks, naked hooks, torches, flambeaux, or other arti- 

 ficial lights, be made generally applicable to all the waters of the 

 Province. 



(2) That in the wilder and remoter portions of the Province an 

 •exception be made to the above recommendation in so far that where the 

 necessity for a supply of fish as a food, either for a small community or 

 ■for an individual settler, is found to exist after due investigation by a 

 competent official of the Government, a commercial license for an 

 amount of net sufficient to supply the purely local need may be issued in 

 the case of the small community, and in the case of the settler, a domestic 

 license for a limited amount of net, but that under no circumstances 

 -should trading under •such domestic license be tolerated, or trading 

 under such commercial license outside of the immediate locality for 

 which the license was issued. 



The Sturgeon. 



Of all fishes to be found in the Provincial waters the sturgeon is 

 individually by far the most valuable at the present time, chiefly owing 

 to the extraordinary commercial value of caviar, whicli is made from 

 the roe of this fish. The sturgeon formerly abounded throughout the 

 great lakes, running frequently to an enormous size, and was found also 

 in great quantities in Lake of the Woods and many of the lesser lakes 

 and rivers of the Province, but the rapidly increasing demand led to such 

 a vigorous pursuit of it that in those accessible waters of the Province 

 which have been fislied commercially its numbers have dwindled almost 

 to vanishing point. In the proposed code of regulations for the inter- 

 national fisheries of the great lakes and Lake of the Woods attention is 

 strikingly called to this fact by a provision to the effect that no sturgeon 

 shall be fished for in any of the international waters for a period of four 

 years from the date of promulgation of the regulations, and it would 

 seem more than probable that once these provisions are in force it will 

 be found desirable to extend this term in order to give the fish a reason- 

 able chance of extensive reproduction. 



The sturgeon was not always held in high esteem on this continent, 



