236 THROUGH CANADA 



fine imposed by the Act than desist from the 

 netting. 



In his 1903 report, Mr. Babcock comments on 

 the situation as follows : *' I believe that the decrease 

 in the run and the absence of fish upon the spawning 

 grounds this year is attributable to excess of fishing. 

 An investigation of the conditions existing on the 

 fishing grounds for the past five years amply 

 demonstrates that to be the cause, and the empty 

 spawning beds of the Fraser this year, and last, 

 prove it." 



I visited Steveston, where the great salmon 

 canning factories are established on the banks of 

 the Fraser. They are manned almost exclusively 

 by Chinese and Japanese. The netting is allocated 

 to the Japs, who are the best boatmen. There the 

 opinion strongly prevailed that the falling off in 

 the fishing was due to excessive netting. On the 

 United States side a system of deadly traps prevails, 

 which the first year caught literally millions of 

 salmon. Now only one year in four is good. Owing 

 to the scarcity of labour, the waste was something 

 enormous. The canners just retained the quantity 

 of fish they could handle in a day, and threw the 

 rest of the haul in a dead or dying state into the 

 river, or left them to rot on the banks. 



One of the advantages of the use of traps over 

 drag-nets is that fish are kept alive. On the other 

 hand, the facilities they afford for capture are far 



