Salmon - Fish ing. 43 7 



The terms of lease of a Canada salmon -stream require the lessee 

 to maintain a guardian upon the river at his own expense. A com- 

 fortable log-house of a single room is usually built just below the 

 first pools, and the guardian occupies it during the few months of the 

 angling and spawning season. This expense is quite light, some- 

 times only a hundred dollars in gold. In addition, the Government 

 appoints and pays overseers, who are assigned to special districts, 

 and are expected rigidly to enforce the law regulating the net fishing 

 in the tidal part of the rivers, and particularly to see that the nets are 

 taken up oven Sunday. The Gaspe rivers flow through so wild and 

 inaccessible a country that it is impossible for poachers to reach the 

 pools and carry away fish in large quantities except in canoes, which 

 must pass the guardian's house. 



If the Government would offer a bounty for every sheldrake 

 killed, it would greatly aid in keeping the streams better stocked. 

 In the stomach of a young sheldrake will be found sometimes six or 

 more parr, as the young of salmon are called. When we consider 

 the numbers of broods raised each year on a stream, and that both 

 young and old are gormandizing parr all day long, we see that thou- 

 sands upon thousands of fish are yearly lost in this way alone. 

 These little parr, by the way, often bite at the fly, which is so large 

 for them that they can only grasp some of its feathers, and hang on 

 so well that you throw them several yards as you withdraw to make 

 a fresh cast. The finger-marks or bars identify them at a glance. 



One evening, while on the Dartmouth, we were surprised by a 

 visit from the guardian and the overseer, who came to dine and 

 spend the night with us. They bragged a little of a big fish the 

 overseer had captured in an unaccountably short time. Upon exam- 

 ining the tackle, we found that the line practically ended at the reel, 

 where it joined a worthless cord, and that even this apology for a 

 line had not been wetted. The rod was a shaky affair, that couldn't 

 possibly kill a lively five-pound trout. The hook was covered thickly 

 with rust. In their canoe we found a fish of over thirty pounds. One 

 eye was covered with an opaque substance which had grown over it 

 on the line of an old net scar. The other eye had across it a recent 

 cut, which had totally destroyed its sight. The fish was then totally 

 blind, and in all likelihood had broken out of a net a few nights 

 before. These cunning jokers had made a sharp and well-defined 

 28a 



