REPORT OF THE COMUlSSIOyERS xxm 



appeared to be coming from Cape Breton. We paid the fishermen five cents per pound 

 for them. They were four or five pounds each. Those we got were probably only part 

 of the total local catch. Some Montreal fish firms got news of the take of shad and 

 at once bought them up eagerly. We sold them for 7 cents or more. In June, 1905, 

 we got a few, 26 pounds total weight. 



While Captain Welsh, in his evidence, referred to spawning grounds in Guys- 

 borough County. He said: — • 



That he had fished haddock nets 5|-inch mesh, mackerel nets, 4-inch, and salmon 

 nets 5|-inch mesh, and shad were taken at times, chiefly at White head and some at 

 Dover. Mackerel nets take the small sized shad. A good many have been taken on the 

 Cape Breton side of Chedabucto bay. The traps take a few. The other day seven thin, 

 spent ones were taken (middle of August), and lots of very large ones were got this 

 spring in the haddock nets, which the men had made larger mesh, not 5| and 5|-inch 

 mesh, but 6-inch mesh. They were four, six and seven pounds each. The head being 

 small, they meshed. In spring they are plump, I said, ' Those fellows are all spawned,' 

 when I saw the very different looking fish on the wharf the other day, taken in the 

 traps. The shad here may spawn in Gaspereau brook and the head of Dover bay. T 

 have got 15 or 20 shad close inshore, taking them in the drag seine for gaspereau and 

 for June mackerel. The seine is 140 or 150 fathoms long. Often we get salmon too. 

 generally one moving along by himself. This spring a 28 pound salmon was taken 

 with fresh herring bait on a haddock trawl. We took three salmon this season, one 

 1" pounds weight; we gaffed it as it went by near the surface; one was got in the 

 salmon net and the other was on a haddock trawl. Occasionally we get a very fat 

 shad in the faU. 



Inspector E. A. Chapman, at the Moncton sitting, referred to the occurrence of 

 .^had along the north shore of New Brunswick : " A few shad are in the Pokemouche 

 and Tracadie rivers, he said, "and many in the Miramichi, also the Eichibucto: but 

 not the Buctouche or the Cocagne." Mr. P. H. Fryers. Moncton, said at the same 

 jilting : " Large shad are taken in the Miramichi at the end of June and in July ; 



but they are fuU of spawn and are poor and dry Externally they were a coarse 



grained looking fish." 



The rivers of Prince Edward Island would seem to be favourable for the shad; 

 but no important fishery has ever been established there. At times catches of several 

 hundred poimds have been made. About 25 years ago the Dominion Inspector of 

 Fisheries (Capt. J. Hunter Duvar) reported as follows: — ■ 



Seven hundred and fifty pounds weight of shad were taken in herring nets; 

 partly in the fish-trap off Kildare, Prince county, and partly in the tidal rivers of 

 Queens. It is only within the past three or four years that these fish have appeared 

 on our coast, and onl,v in small nxunbers. A few have been observed in the Hills- 

 borough river, above Charlottetown, and have been taken as far up as Mount Stewart. 

 If it be correct, as surmised, that shad do not breed further north than the middle 

 United States, and that the supply in the Bay of Fundy is merely a migration north- 

 ward from that source, it would most likely be in vain to look for them in quantity 

 on the island coast. 



Different Runs of Shad. 



It must be noted that there are two very distinct runs of shad in the Bay of 

 Fundy. First, large spring shad, which are seen first off Lorneville shore early in 

 May, these schools being on their way to rivers, such as St. John, for spawning pur- 

 poses, as proved by the fact that they are full of spawn, and are large breeding fish. 



