APPENDIX III. 273 



and trout were so plenty that they had no sale at all.* 

 Very fine eels were killed by the barrel full by rapping 

 them on the head with a stick as they came up the small 

 brooks by night. 



The writer, in connection with Mr. Joseph Goodfellow 

 of Mirimichi, shipped to Boston and New York, during 

 the three months, January, February, and March, 1869, 

 30,490 pounds of striped bass, frozen ; 46,946 pounds of 

 smelts, frozen ; 8,908 pounds of sea trout, frozen. 



Previous to our starting this work, these enormous sup- 

 plies of fish were of no value to the inhabitants. Since 

 then a lucrative trade in these fish has been continued. 



We paid at first, in 1868, 3^ cents per pound for striped 

 bass, 2\ cents per pound for smelts, 3^ cents per pound 

 for trout. The prices have risen very much since the 

 trade was opened, and make these fisheries a considerable 

 source of revenue to the Mirimichi people. 



The Mirimichi River rises near the head-waters of the 

 St. John, and flows northeasterly into the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. To go to the Mirimichi River from Boston, 

 you take a steamer to St. John, 300 miles, the cars from 

 St. John to Shediac, 100 miles, and steamer from Shediac 

 to New Castle, Mirimichi, 100 miles more. 



The most valuable fish caught in the Mirimichi are 

 Salmon (Salmo salar) ; Striped Bass (Labrax lineatus) ; 

 Sea Trout (Salmo trutta) ; Brook Trout (Salmo fontina- 

 lis) ; Smelt (Osmerus mridescens] ; Sturgeon (Acipenser) ; 

 Eel (Anguilla). 



The Missisquoi River, though not so rich in fish as the 



* The writer saw repeatedly a school of about two hundred 

 large trout under a bridge where the most travelled highway 

 crossed a small brook emptying into the Mirimichi. These trout 

 summered here. No one thought them worth molesting, and 

 they consequently lost their shyness, so as not to be at all afraid 

 of the teams and persons passing. 



12* R 



