294 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



France, in his reports to the French Academy and the French 

 Government, has answered admirably in France, and according 

 to Mr. W. H. Fry and others, quoted by him in his treatise on 

 artificial fish-breeding, has been generally effective in Scotland. 

 This system, as is well known, consists simply in transporting 

 from one river to another the impregnated eggs of the salmon, 

 and placing them in shallow waters with a gentle current, where 

 they are soon hatched, and become salmon fry or par and able to 

 take care of themselves. In consequence of the ova of the salmon 

 which are deposited in the spawning beds in the months of 

 October, November, and December, becoming congealed by frost 

 in the subsequent months, Canada appears to offer greater facili ties 

 for their safe transport than those countries in which the system 

 has been so successful, but whose climates are more temperate. 

 Surely, supposing this is a mere untried experiment which is far 

 from being the case it would be well worth the while of some of 

 the many wealthy and intelligent dwellers upon the banks of our 

 beautiful rivers to test its value, particularly when they call to 

 mind the well-known fact in the natural history of the salmon, 

 that he invariably returns to the stream in which his youth was 

 spent, and that so they may calculate upon having their present 

 barren rivers stocked with as valuable articles of consumption and 

 of commerce as their fowl-houses or their farm-yards. 



I shall for brevity Is sake abstain from enlarging on this subject, 

 merely observing that ample information can be obtained upon it 

 by consulting the works of M. M. Coste and Fry, which are to be 

 found in the libraries and bookshops in this city* ; and that in the 

 streams in which it may be put into operation if there are mill- 

 dams upon them the artificial construction to enable the fish to 

 descend and ascend to and from the sea will still be requisite. 



Having said so much on the decrease and restoration of salmon 



* Quebec. 



