THE REPORT UPON No. 14 



locally any that may be wanted. 1 do not mean that they are in the habit of making 

 shipments, but sell any called for. The price is regulated by the market price at 

 the time; on Monday 1 could buy herring at four ceiits a pound, no other kinds of 

 fish were on hand that day. I did not find that there was any good reason for the 

 complaints; possibly the price being higher than iii former years may be the 

 grievance." 



(Signed) W. W. Holden. 



To use a hunting term, the method adopted for taking care of the Canadian 

 demand described above appears to some extent like drawing a herring across the 

 trail. The cognomen assumed by the company is not appropriate — nature is the 

 producer. Port Stanley is a very small part of the Province, and it seems to me 

 that if the so-called " Producer's Pish Company " intended to supply the home 

 market they would appoint a manager with a distributing establishment at Toronto, 

 the same as they have at Buffalo, where it is alleged than an ex-manager of an 

 alien fish company, formerly operating in the Province, has been appointed. It 

 will be interesting to learn what proportion of the fish caught by members of the 

 " Producer's Fish Company " in Ijake Erie are shipped to their Manager in 

 BulFalo. Perhaps it may be well to remind members of associations formed for 

 dealing in our most valuable natural product that the Government possesses 

 effective means for dealing with those responsible for combines inimical to the 

 public interest, whether the effect of the combination is to enhance the price or to 

 restrict the supply. 



Game. 



Moose are reported to be found as numerous as in past years, in fact, in 

 sufficient numbers to warrant the belief that these magnificent and largest of our 

 game animals will afford sport and recreation for many years in our northern 

 woods. Caribou will be, in the near future, an attraction to the sportsmen in the 

 recent addition to the Province when access thereto is facilitated by the completion 

 of the railways now under construction. 



Deer. — The wisdom of reducing the number of deer that may be legally killed 

 in one season by each hunter, from two to one, has during the past open season 

 been exemplified in the very large proportion of bucks killed compared with past 

 years. The result of this in keeping up the supply of these beautiful animals will 

 be apparent. In many portions of the Province hunters report deer as numerous 

 as in past years, but scarce in those localities in which the destructive bush fire? 

 occurred. 



Ducks. — Sportsmen have no reason to complain of the scarcity of ducks. The 

 comparatively mild weather prevailing during the early part of the open season was 

 not conducive to large hags. The sportsmen, not only of the Province bnt of the 

 whole Dominion, are to be congratulated on the action of the Federal Government 

 of the United States in passing a bill for the protection of migratory birds, in 

 consequence of their far reaching and beneficial effect on the perpetuation of 

 bird life. 



Puffed Grouse.— -One of our most valued native game birds. The act of 

 reducing the open season to one month, and limiting the number killed by one 

 person to ten birds a day, will have a tendency to prevent the necessity of having 

 occasional close seasons. Complaints reach me from fair weather sportsmen, who 

 in former vears were a factor in nearly exterminating these grand birds by shoot- 



