SEVERAL RELEVANT TOPICS. 



Forced from their homes, a melancholy train. Goldsmith. 



I find the following paragraph in a fairly-written book, 

 printed in England fifteen years ago, with this title, 

 "Chiploquorgan ; or, Life by the Camp Fire in Dominion of 

 Canada and Newfoundland, by Richard Lewis Dashwood, 

 XV. Regiment." 



"We were much surprised and disappointed at the paucity 

 of salmon on our way up the Cascapedia, and when we 

 reached the Forks only succeeded in killing two after 

 several day's fishing. We therefore came to the conclusion 

 that the river as regards salmon was a myth, and decided 

 to return to the sea. " 



This visit was made in July, 1862. "The Forks," where 

 barely two salmon were killed, are about fifty miles from the 

 mouth of the river, and "on his way up," Col. Dashwood 

 and his companions passed a score of pools where I have 

 killed many scores of salmon, and which no one now-a-days 

 with any sort of skill could fish without being amply re- 

 warded for the time and toil required to reach them. 



The "paucity" experienced by this party in 1862 can not 

 be attributed either to their want of proficiency or to their 

 ignorance of the habits of the fish, for the Colonel was an 

 old salmon angler, having fished all the best salmon waters 

 of the "old country," and was accompanied by a gentleman 

 as noted for his skill as for his eccentricities. Nor could 

 their ill luck have resulted from their want of knowledge of 

 the locality of the pools, for some of them are so conspicu- 

 ous that any "wayfaring man, though a fool," could not 

 have made a mistake. 



To what then could this "paucity of salmon" in this long 

 famous river be attributed? Making all due allowance for 

 any want of skill or knowledge or application on the part of 

 these gentlemen, I uni inclined to attribute their disappoint- 



