ISJERIU REfORT 49 



moil go. It is all gravelly bottom. For half a mile up this river to Enfield lock it is 

 sandy and spawning ground is anywhere. 



JoHX KiCHARDS^ Elmsdale, born at Truro, Hyde Bridge, said he was a railroader, 

 employed on the Intercolonial Eailway. My father fished forty years ago when I was 

 a child and I fish. Salmon are got here 15 to 20 pounds in weight, five miles below 

 here is a great place as they lie there the bottom being clean sand and gravel. The 

 fish spawn there. Woodworth got a 20 pound salmon this season. Xine-mile river 

 is one of the best Ln the covmtry as it is clean. Forty salmon were seen in one hole 

 lying there waiting for water which was low. Five inch mesh would entangle big fish 

 but 6 inch is best ; better than S or 9-inch. The finer the twine the better. The size 

 of salmon on the average is not so big now though odd ones exceed the size of salmon 

 formerly. Owing to the freshet no fishing is going on. ilillions of eels are seen wait- 

 ing to devotir the spawn. They devotir the fish when meshed in the nets. The small 

 fry — the poor little things they are snapped up — indeed a week ago the eel grass was 

 alive with eels. I've never seen eels eating spawn but it is reasonable to -Junk they 

 do. Eels so plentiful that tons were sent a few years ago from ililford to Boston. 

 Fifty tons were sent in one we.'*!-:, and they were so plentiful that every farmer took 

 part in the fishery, the price being 3 cents per pound in the round and 5 cents split 

 and skinned. They are salt water eels which come up and then travel back to the sea 

 in the fall. The Indians set eel pots at the settlement to take eels coming down but 

 no one does it now. Yet millions come up in June and about the 1st of July. They 

 are fine to eat and worth more than other fish, but they are scattered and it is difiicult 

 to get quantities. One hundred to two htmdred have been speared in a day in winter. 

 They are got through the ice as they are in the mud then. The shad were very plen- 

 tiful alxiut 1S93, and a net set would take T.". 100 or 120 in a night for a season or 

 two, but they slacked off quickly because of sawdust pollution and eels. In the spring 

 of 1905-6, one man here got thirty or forty they had decreased so much. Old people 

 say that shad come back to the same spots. The spawning grounds are not below 

 "^andy iTcDonald's, Barney^s Brook, because tide comes up there and the bottom is 

 mud — they choose a good clean bottom. They spawn at Enfield and come down look- 

 ing long and lanlcy. The Shubenacadie and Nine Mile river are their natural spawn- 

 ing rivers, and they should have been used better. The 5J inch meshed gill net will 

 take a 10 pound shad. I never weighed them, but I think I have got eight pound 

 shad. The largest are females, the smaller are males and are the best fish and are 

 sharper on the belly. The spawn shad is floppy and gutty, but as people like the big 

 ones the female slia'l sell better. The males form half the schools and are better 

 quality. In spawning both kinds of fish I think have to be present and the milt, 

 which is white must go over the eggs. After spawning the females may remain about 

 for a fortnight. Shad are scarce because you can set a net and not get 100 fish all 

 'the spring when a few years ago TOO or SOO would be taken. Fifteen years ago about 

 five hundred fish to each farmer fishing shad at Milford, as it was a great fishing 

 ground, the water being just right. There ^ere more nets there than here. Probabl.v 

 twenty nets are set down at Milford and about seven here, and about thirty from Mil- 

 ford to Elmsdale. The average catch for each will be 500 shad, not more fisher- 

 men than was the average 15 years ago. Mr. Scott bought the fish : he kept store 

 hero. There are not more men fishing now than formerly, reall.v fewer, indeed very 

 few here last spring. Xext spring may see a good run of shad. Shad are caught 

 above the net; you can't catch them below the net. It is said that men set nets 

 across the river from bank to bank. Shad can get past, as the.v will go round the 

 stake in shallow water. My father got 60 shad in one ' looking ' some years ago. Men 

 who use shorter nets take more shad. They play up and down. Xets set across are 

 no damage to shad, because they will keep below it. ify catch this season was 150 

 shad and three salmon : my boy, Clarence Richard, fished. Shad only go to Home's 

 Eottloiijent. near the top mouth of the river. The best fifhing is between Slniben- 



