248 FISHERIES. 



rivers in Upper Canada abounded with Salmon and other 

 fish to an extent which we in this country can hardly 

 conceive. Mr. McCuaig, writing from Hamilton, says, he 

 himself saw salmon from 1812 to 1815 swarming the 

 rivers so thickly, that they were thrown out with a 

 shovel and even with the hand. But the ignorant 

 destructiveness of one class, and the selfish cupidity of 

 another; the erection of mill-darns which prevented 

 salmon from ascending the rivers to spawn ; the system of 

 choking the streams with sawdust and refuse from the 

 mills, of spearing by torchlight, of over-netting, and of 

 fishing out of season, gradually produced their inevit- 

 able results. So serious became the prospects of the 

 fisheries, that about eleven years ago the necessity for 

 interference on the part of the Government, and for 

 stringent legislative enactments, was brought by Mr. 

 Nettle, the present Superintendent of Crown Fisheries 

 for Lower Canada, under the notice of the then 

 Governor- General* (himself an ardent lover of salmon 

 fishing), to whom both New Brunswick and Canada are 

 much indebted for the interest he took in their fisheries. 

 This eventually resulted in the passing of the present 

 Fishery Act, prior to which there was no law or regu- 

 lation on the subject. Every person fished when, where, 



* Sir Edmund Head. 



