INTERIil REPORT 41 



Shad int come about the last of April or May 1, they are the old spawners. These 

 are destroyed up the Shuhenacadie and other rivers by nets stretched across and by 

 spearing in small brooks as they ascend to Grand Lake. Xot six out of a hundred 

 reach Grand Lake. Even these six or eight have enemies in fresh water. Trout 

 wiU catch a shad 2 or 3 inches long. He had seen trout swallow other fish, trout or 

 gaspereau, and eels are verj' destructive. Schools of young shad come down in the 

 fall and move down to Florida, but these don't come back here to spawn. They come 

 back fat and grown and we catch them. They come in thick at Walton about June 

 20, and we may get 500 in a night, they are that thick. J. have fished from Burnt 

 Coat to Blomidon, and for a few years at Maitland. As the waters are narrow here 

 the fish are more crowded, thicker than at Walton. They are here earlier than at 

 Shuhenacadie. There is no spawn in them as they come up to feed. It would 

 increase the number of shad if for six or eight years no fishing were allowed from 

 Black Eock to ilaitland above that, and a heavy penalty provided for violation. I 

 say a fine of $900 to $1,000, or three years' imprisonment. The officers have neigh- 

 bours and friends and don't want to offend, so don't do anything to stop violations. 

 I never fished less net than 300 and as much as 600 fathoms (30-40 bunches). It is 

 hard to carry out restrictions of length of net, and many poor men might wish to 

 use a longer net. The mesh is 45 inches to 5i inches, and larger mesh takes larger 

 fish, but choke in a smaller mesh and fall out, but smaller ones remain meshed. Up 

 the bay the shad are caught, first striking in at the head of the bay, but are fished the 

 rest of the season at Walton. The fishing lasted eight weeks, June 20 to August 20, 

 and we got 100 to 200 or 300 barrels, and shipped mainly to the United States, get- 

 ting $12 to $20 a barrel; once we got $22, but there was $2 duty. The best catches 

 were made in 1872 or 1873, and were good for seven years. They fell off. some men 

 thought, because too many nets were used. St. John men came over with their big 

 nets, and shad became scarce, only 500 to 900 being a season's catch. But the St. 

 .John men fished off shore of us, and when we stopped they got all the fish. When 

 we got less than 1 00 to a drift we considered that it did not pay us ; but that is a 

 good catch now. 1 knocked off because I only got 100 shad on a drift. The fishery 

 was a means of circulating an immense lot of money, because country people came 

 in and bought hundreds of shad before breakfast. They took one or two barrels each 

 and bought for their neighbours, so there was a great sale. I often had my pockets 

 then full of 10c. pieces. I built boats and greatly feel the loss; the decline is a 

 calamity. The salrnon has improved and is not like it was in my day, when we got 

 3 pound small white bellied salmon, five or six at a drift, in July. The hatchery 

 has done good and improved the size of fish. Fifteen-pound salmon are got, whereas 

 3-pound fish were thought good fish. Gaspereau are plentiful, and nets for them will 

 mesh and drown a shad, and he'll fall out. I have seen a weir outside the Tail destroy 

 small fish, the flats being covered for one-quarter mile around with dead gaspereau 

 and shad. They drown in the weirs and go through the brush. Weirs are very 

 injurious, few fish that come down escape capture in weirs, and I have picked tip lots 

 dead. Shad are caught 'n rivers in Maine, though immense cuts of lumber are made 

 on them, hence weirs are worse than lumbering. As to the shad's food, it is not 

 shrimps, as the maw is too small, and I never found shrimp in them. Shad never 

 take bait. 



Andrew Axthoxy said 15 years ago I ceased to fish shad. He thought the 

 alleged injuiy of sawdust might l>e questioned. If shad were a ground fish it might 

 be harmful. The food and the spawn fish were the two great matters. The food 

 had disappeared; it was a little black worm. I found them in the boat. The killing 

 of spawn shad was a chief cause of the destruction. These two causes accounted for 

 the decline. I have seen shad stopped owing to a jam of logs as when Mr. Dickey 

 was lumbering on the lower Stewiacke. I began fishing 50 or 60 years ago and shad 

 wer€ pretty thick then. They ran thickest about 1860 to 1865 but were not so big as 



