63 WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 



shallows and pools of all the streams which then made their 

 way, unobstructed by milldams or other barriers, to the lake. 



But for these obstructions, supplemented by choking saw- 

 dust and poisonous chemicals, many of these streams would 

 have continued to be what they once were, the chosen resorts 

 and spawning beds of this favorite fish, whereas now, 

 not a salmon, except at one or two points, where they have 

 been or are being artificially propagated, is seen in any river 

 between Montreal and Hamilton. I would not complain of 

 this if it had been a square question between progressive in- 

 dustry and the extermination of the lordly salmon; but we 

 now know that, in many rivers, their extermination was not 

 neccessary to the development of industry. If the mill- 

 dams had been constructed so that the fish could have sur- 

 mounted them (as is easily practicable), salmon would have 

 continued to ascend the streams, and would still be found 

 in waters from whence they have been driven by the erec- 

 tion of these impassable barriers. Although the Dominion 

 government is endeavoring to undo the mischief already 

 done, I fear it will take many more years to replenish than 

 it did to deplete these once prolific salmon waters. 



A year or two before this developed "paucity" of the 

 Cascapcdia and other rivers of the lower Provinces, having 

 learned by experience that it would be too late to lock the 

 stable door after the horse was stolen, stringent laws were 

 passed by Parliament to protect the fisheries in all waters 

 under government control. But, unfortunately, while the 

 original laws contained sundry useful provisions, they were 

 fatally defective in that all persons were "forbidden to fish 

 for, capture or kill fish by means of spears, except only 

 the Indians." This exception rendered the law practically 

 nugatory. The deadly spear had been the chief cause of all 

 the mischief, and so long as this permission continued it 

 would be impossible to bring the rivers (in the neighbor- 

 hood of localities where the speared fish could be exchanged 

 for rum and tobacco) back to their original status. This 

 spearing clause was still in force in '62, when Col. Dash- 

 wood made his trip up the Cascapedia, and to that fact may 



