40 SHAD FISHERY COMMISSION 



Oswald O'Briex, Noel, said : I remember plenty of shad taken in the Noel weir, 

 indeed ox-teams took loads away in 1879. In the summer of 1880 the East Xoel weir 

 was stopped because the parties crossed the farm lands to get to it, and they fastened 

 their gates. There was a squabble about the matter and the fish in consequence it is 

 said left. Bass were best in spring and fall. Sawdust and the killing of the spawn 

 shad had a bad effect, but some other reason must also exist. Sawdust hurt the feed- 

 ing grounds. Gaspereau ascended Petite and Tene Cape brooks, and a curious thing 

 occurred. The fish got up the right side and then wheeled about went up the west 

 brook. East brook goes up into the plaster rock area, and the fish find they are in the 

 wrong brook. People put a board across and kept the water back but as soon as they 

 lifted the board the rush of water made the gaspereau run straight up. They spawn 

 on the bars, about 8 or 10 miles from the shore, and people go there and net them on 

 the beds. Holes in the Walton Aboiteau permit the fish to go up. Gaspereau are 

 worth protecting as they are a very good fish on the table. 



Ninth Sitting. 



PuBuc Hall, Maitlaxd, N.S., August 10, 1908. 



There was a large attendance when Professor Prince opened the session of the 

 commission. Mr. S. F. Morrison followed with some appropriate remarks and evi- 

 dence was then taken. 



^Ir. Isaac Douglas, Maitlakd, was the first witness. He stated that he was pro- 

 bably the oldest person present in the hall, being in his 86th year. He continued, 'I 

 was eleven or twelve yeare of age before I saw a shad. Shad were scarce; but in 1835 

 I think or 1S36, the shad came back. They were got on the flats in holes or pools left 

 by the tide. We speared them for two or three years, and got as many as we could 

 carry on our backs. The flats were alive with shad. Then small nets were used, 33 

 fathoms (one bunch). That was in 1837, and the men easily filled their small boats 

 getting 300 or 400 shad on a tide. William Lawrence, as a young man. built a boat 

 and secured 38 barrels his first season. Every one who had a boat then fished and got 

 all they could handle. There was no trouble to get fish. Then they began to decrease. 

 Why? Because the shad were killed on their way to the spawning grounds. I have 

 gone from Shubenacadie to MiKord and Elmsdale, and found every mile or two, a net 

 strung across the river, completely stopping the shad. Three years ago a firm in 

 Truro was called upon at breakfast time by a man who had 143 shad in a wagon, but 

 he would not tell where he got them. Every fish was full of spawn. He was only one, 

 and there were lots of others at the same work. Regarding sawdust I never have seen 

 a man yet that ever got sawdust inside a shad. Some men use small lengths of net 

 others have weirs half a mile long. The poor man is at a disadvantage. There is no 

 fair play because the rich man has the gear, he can buy plenty of gear. The poor 

 man cannot afford it, and gets short nets only. My grandfather told me of the shad 

 fishery before my time and my knowledge of it goes a long way back though I never 

 fished a day in my life. !My grandfather said that the bay was alive with fish, it was 

 swarming with shad. But they left because, some say, the people became quarrelsome. 



Mr. JoHX Deakm.^x had fished shad 33 years. Had fished at Walton. Before 

 his time shad had been scarce, but were plentiful when he began, but for two or three 

 years shad fishing had not paid. He had caught from 100 to 1.000 in one drift in 

 one night. He thought that sawdust had injured shad. He had split the shad's 

 maw when gutting them, and it is like the maw of a bird. They feed on suction. 



