INTERIM REPORT 33 



helped to bring about the decrease especially perhaps the cutting down of the forests, 

 causing- more soil to be carried down in suspension in the water, i.e., more poisonous 

 material than formerly and affecting such favourite shad resorts as Scott's bay. 



Sixth Sitting. 



ElLEY BUILDIKG, WlXDSOE, N.S., Aug. C, 1908. 



On the sitting being opened by the Commissioner, Professor Pkixce, and Mr. S. 

 F. MoRRlsox evidence was taken. 



iloRTox Card, Burij^gtox, said that he had fished for 26 years and farmed. 

 >had, salmon, cod, gaspereau, &c., were the fish he took. When he began fishing 

 was good and 200 to 300 shad were caught in a night by a man. It was all right 

 then. The fishing lasted from June 20 to September 1. After three good years 

 fishing fell off. The No. 1 shad were three pounds weight cleaned, and very few No. 

 2's were taken. They were fine and fat, and few spawn fish occurred, not one in a 

 thousand. Whether the shad were coming in from the sea or out it is difficult to 

 to say, though I have got them far out coming in. We take shad on the ebb tide, 

 as they mostly stem the tide. We used gill nets 60 or TO fathoms long, in some cases 

 150 fathoms might be used. About 100 fathoms to a boat was common, the boat 

 being 16 to IS feet long. The mesh was 4J inches to 5J inches, and was Ivnox's 

 Scotch twine Xo. JO and 3, twine bought from W. H. Thorne, St. John. We got no 

 small fish, and if there were any they must have passed through the mesh. We 

 fished from Windsor to Blomidon. The fish came in to feed. The food is scum or 

 suction. Sawdust does harm, and the poor shad we see are the effect of sawdust. I 

 live a mile from Kennetcook river, and at low water I see the beach lined with saw- 

 dust. The nearest mill is nine miles off, hence it floats a long way and lodges in 

 the gills, but chiefly it is in the stomach. Seines are injurious. They are two miles 

 long at Boot Island, and I have found a thousand small 4 inches and up for 100 

 mature shad. I heard that shad have been used for compost. This season I got 

 only 25 shad and about 12 salmon, weighing 5 pounds a piece on an average. The 

 price for shad is $10 per 100 generally. There has been no decrease in the size of 

 shad. I have occasionally seen a spawn shad, but our gaspereau nets used early 

 were too small to take them. I think spawn shad are a different species from sum- 

 mer shad. The shape is the same, but they are larger, and of course may be the 

 same species. I think the same shad return for several years in succession, .\bout 

 three weeks after they get shad at St. .John we get them here. The spawn shad come 

 in May, but we never get any here of those. Stop the taking of spawn shad. The 

 sawdust abuse and set nets should be remedied in order to improve shad fishing. I 

 have not fished gaspereau nets, 3j-inch mesh, for two or three years. These drift 

 nets were used from April 20 to June 1. J think there was a good run this year. 

 The alewife is not the same fish as the gaspereau, though -they herd together. The 

 alewife is a little larger, and has black spots, same as shad, and resembles the shad 

 more than the gaspereau. it has a sharper head than the rounder headed gaspereau, 

 but both are rough on the belly. Both are in roe when they come in to spawn up 

 the Gaspereau or Horton river and Kennetcook river in Shell's lake. They are 

 used for food, fresh and smoked. They feed same as a shad and fatten up after two 

 weeks and improve as the season goes on. Line fish are wholly gone before we begin 

 our fishing. 



William Withrow, Newport Laxdixg, said he had five or six years' experience 

 nt fishing. He was a farmer and worked about the bay with scows. &c. He asroed 



