i)i an Untouched Aincriuin M'ildcrncss 



a migratory being. If he would stay up 

 in his summer home all the year, then 

 nothing would disturb him. But every 

 season he must run the gantlet of the 

 tide-water nets, of which there are a great 

 number. The fish-laws of the Dominion 

 allow each riparian owner on tide-water 

 to put out a pound-net not exceeding in 

 length one-third the width of the channel. 

 For thirty or more miles the tide rushes 

 up from the sea, and some of these streams 

 are very wide as far up as tidal action ex- 

 tends. To the canoeist on these lower 

 reaches it seems incredible that a single 

 fish could escape the manifold dangers of 

 travel through the maze of nets. But a 

 great number do. The summer of 1895, 

 owing to the lowness of the water, was a 

 very bad salmon year. Yet an overland 

 journey to the head of one of the remote 

 tributaries of the Miramichi water system, 

 in July, enabled us to see, in the rocky 

 basins of the river, conventions of salmon 

 which must have numbered thousands of 

 individuals. Camped by the side of one 

 of these big pools, the constant splashing 

 made by the jumping fish was disastrous 

 to sound sleep. The heavy, sloppy blow 

 struck by a fifteen-pound salmon, as he 

 tumbles back against the surface of the 



159 



