APPENDIX. 325 



If the river is too low, it cannot be ascended to the fishing ground, 

 and this sometimes happens. 



Sir Edmund Head, fished also in the Ristigouche, which divides 

 New Brunswick from Canada, of which magnificent river there 

 are two branches, the Metapediac from the north, and the Upsal- 

 quitch from the south, which abound with salmon, Mr. Perley 

 stated that no sportsman had visited them ; but he thinks they 

 would well repay a visit. 



The Mirimachi should be better protected, and not poached, as 

 we observed it was. One morning we saw two fishermen who had 

 got thirty-seven salmon with the spear the night before, "by 

 burning the water," that is with a torch at the end of a canoe at 

 the tail of a rapid. The Indian fish-spear is a very ingenious 

 implement, a prong at the end of the pole transfixes the fish, 

 whilst two semicircles of wood on each side of the prong embrace 

 the flanks of the salmon, and enable the fisherman to raise it from 

 the bottom of the stream. 



An excursion to the Bay of Chaleur in a yacht is recommended, 

 as besides fishing, as the season advanced, the wild fowl shooting 

 would expend a large quantity of ammunition. 



Here let us say a word about the black fly and mosquito. We 

 suffered terribly before we learnt the trick to repel their assaults 

 in the American woods in summer ; we tried oil and camphor, 

 but that was only partially successful ; we saw grease and tar used 

 by rough settlers, and one can easily imagine the figure cut by 

 those who used this agreeable mixture. Oil and some drops of 

 creosote " banished all the varmint," and we should not be too 

 fastidious about smells if we want to enjoy immunity from the 

 poisonous bites of the torments of the woods. 



It always seemed to me that there was wonderful short-sighted- 

 ness or remissness in many quarters, as to the preservation of 

 fish, particularly of the best of all, the salmon. The streams flow- 

 ing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence once teemed with the delicious 



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