328 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



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 labour and anxious cares of depositing their 

 prolific burden, they are ruthlessly 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 melters both suffer. Is it possible to exaggerate the ruinous 

 consequences of such improvidence ? 



There are also other features in this practice contributing to 

 the waste and injustice it entails. The salmon so 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 moulded biscuits. The wrong to the public 

 of suffering the richest and finest fish in American waters the 

 precious capital of our rivers to be thus traded in when almost 

 valueless, and under circumstances that admit only of unscrupulous 

 fishermen 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, and concealing the unwholesome fish at the bottom of 

 the tubs, or dispersing them amongst other sound pieces, thus 

 palm them off upon the public. Costing little at prime, the sale 

 is a ready one below average market price. If consumers were 

 but once to see a few specimens of unseasonable salmon struck 

 by the spear, they would remember 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 long shore and 



