APPENDIX. 317 



during Autumn and periods of reproduction, as is still more frequently 

 the case, it becomes indescribably bad it is the crowning act of 

 extirpation. The luckless fish are then killed at a stage which makes 

 the bare feature of destroy al in the highest degree deplorable. 

 They have won their devious way from the luscious pastures of old 

 ocean, through labyrinths of nets and a multitude of watery perils. 

 Urged onward by strong instincts, they have surmounted incredible 

 difficulties, and achieved marvels of adventurous travel. They are 

 now arrived at nature 1 s free hospitals of piscary lying-in. The 

 water-way by which they came is in many parts impassably shoal, 

 and no more heavy breeders can reach the same high grounds, or 

 supply their places, for that year at least. And after all, lean from 

 exertion and thin food ; dark and slimy from the physical drain and 

 unhealthy action incident to the procreative state, perhaps sluggish 

 and heavy with thousands of ova, or busied in the exhaustive labor 

 and anxious cares of depositing their prolific burden, they are ruth- 

 lessly slain by the spear. With every dead or wounded fish there 

 perish in embryo from ten to thirty, forty, fifty, even as high as 

 sixty thousand. Spawners and milters both suffer. Is it, then, pos- 

 sible to exaggerate the ruinous consequences of such improvi- 

 dence ? 



There are also other features in this practice contributing to the 

 waste and injustice which it so entails. The salmon taken by spear 

 are, comparatively speaking, worthless as a marketable commodity. 

 But, being easily taken, the captors willingly dispose of them at 

 miserable prices, and in barter for the cheapest kinds of goods ; for 

 rusty pork and molded biscuits. The wrong to the public, of suffer- 

 ing the richest and finest fish in Canadian waters the precious 

 capital of our rivers to be thus traded in when almost valueless, 

 and under circumstances that admit only of unscrupulous fisher- 

 men and dishonest traders deriving some mean benefits thereby, is 

 obvious. These dealers adroitly scarify the ugly portions, disguise 

 their ill-conditioned bargain by dry salting, or hot pickle. atLd con- 

 cealing the unwholesome fish at the bottom of the tubs, or dispers- 

 ing them among other sound pieces, thus palm them off upon the 

 public. Costing little at prime, the sale is a ready one below aver- 

 age market price. If consumers were but once to see a few speci- 

 mens of unseasonable salmon struck by the spear, they would remem- 

 ber the loathsome sight, and rather than venture the chances of 

 again eating such deleterious food, would eschew salmon altogether. 



If the river fisheries become exhausted through this custom, the 

 whole public suffers, because these streams are the nurseries which 

 breed supplies and furnish wealth to the 'longshore and estuary fish- 

 ings. Besides, to tolerate it must always expose crown lessees to the 

 risk of having their limits suddenly deteriorated by the bold en- 

 croachments of spearers. To punish them, even, cannot restore the 

 damage. Years, indeed, must elapse ere the pirated rivers can reco* 



