I XT E RIM REPORT 27 



JoHX E. BiGELOw, Canning, said that shad ascended clear up to the dam three- 

 quarters of a mile up the river in July and August. In Gaspereau river, gaspereau 

 were got in the shad seine: hundreds of barrels. The river here was alive with shad: 

 their hacks could be seen out of the water; hut shipbuilding spoiled the fishing because 

 of the sawdust. I think the feeding grounds are just as good as ever and not damaged 

 by sawdust. I don"t think that drift nets killed the fishing. There are not half the 

 ships here now that there used to be. The shad caught at Bridgetown in ilay are not 

 good. Formerly the shad men could not take care of their big catches and had to let 

 some go adrift. In 1S65-6S, I have known 30,000 to 40.000 taken at a tide, but S.OOO 

 or 10,000 was more usual, and never moi-e than three or four spawners at times. Shad 

 have declined gradually but thei-e are not so many weirs for shad as there used to be. 



jAiiES Xewtox stated that shad came up to the old wharf where a seine was and 

 a mile below was a seine. 



X. "\V. Eatox, Cax.mxg, said 1 have bou};ht shnd for lliirty years. In 1S76, there 

 were a good many shad and in IbOti the decline began : 10 to 50 barrels or packages 

 during the last ten years per season. I have handled 300 shad this year and I handle 

 the major part of the local catch. It was three barrels and fifteen packages (i.e., haK- 

 barrels) of salt shad. The price twenty years ago was $-1 or $5 per half-barrel, but 

 $8 to $10 per half-barrel for the last five years. The quantity has fallen ofit, but the 

 quality and size have not declined. 2\ot many small shad ever brought to nie. The 

 remedy is the lU'ohibition of catching spawning shad. At Scott's bay, a limit in fi.'sh- 

 ing already is carried out, viz., the prohibition there of drift nets. 



S. BiRGESS, Caxxixg. when a youth eighteen years old remembered shad as iilen- 

 tiful. That was fifty years ago. A barrel of Xo. I's brought $8, later the price rose 

 to $10. The Scott's bay shad considered better than river shad: no fresh water being 

 there in the bay and they were bigger and heavier. The trouble is due to drift net- 

 ting and taking of spawn fish. 



George W. Coffin said that in the summer of 1872. a Xew Brunswick schooner 

 was brought to this shore by Captain Stoddart. with a few boats and fished with lines 

 for cod in ilinas Basin and drifted for shad at night. 



B. D. Bishop, C.\xxixg, stated that he was a farmer, but for six or seven years had 

 done some fishing. He had fished before but quit twenty years ago. The shad had 

 diminished then. lie fished at Kingsport and had a share in a set seine. It was to 

 the south of Kingsport near the river channel. Hiltz bought us out. We took shad, 

 now and then a salmon, also cod and haddock and a lot of roiigh fish and a lot of stur- 

 geon. The last were six to seven feet long and we fed the hogs on them. We got 

 various sizes of shad, but the larger the catch the better the fish were, and a poor 

 catch meant small fish — No. 2's and Xo. 3's. Small fish or fry seen; but we did not 

 think they were shad. If you ascertain, where the shad spawn you woidd get to the 

 root of the trouble. Long ago the New Brunswick people spoke to me of the spa^vn 

 shad caught early in the season. Long ago a law was made to prohibit drifting all 

 around here. 



3491— G 



