IXTERIil REPORT 71 



Ci) A dam at the Xietaux falls vLich is 10 feet high and was always au obstruction. 

 The tishway put in was useless because not enough rock blown out below to give the 

 :ish a sta' t, in atto'.npting to get up. ^4) Alpeua ilauj, wliich has a tishv. liv ami the mill. 

 i5 abandoned, the gates are now always open. (5) At the lakes there are dams to drive 

 logs. For two years owing to no log driving taking place the river became dry the 

 water being held back and no shad spawned below on that account. Shad 

 go up by diagonal ' shoots,' but come round back so are netted above the 

 net. A net half-way across will catch more shad than a very long net; but salmon 

 feel along the net to get by. Fishing is more general now. Six or seven men fished 

 thirty years ago, but now everybody who can get room tries to catch shad. There were 

 not so many ]:et5 formerly. From Brickmakers Building to Taylor'.? Falls, i.e., in 

 four miles there are twenty-seven nets, but more the year before (1907). Some shad 

 get up the Annapolis river because they ascend before the nets are set at 10th of May. 

 On the 10th to 15th June, we got some coming down. A mistake was made about the 

 close season when the Board of trade urged a season by Order in Council and the 

 time May 10 to June 15, is too late, the shad are coming down then and are not fit to 

 eat. It should be April 1 to June 1. One man netted 26 or 28 each night for the last 

 two or tkree nights' fishing and must have been the shad I saw spawning in the side 

 channel I spoke of. Quite a lot of salmon stay for the winter, and I don't agree about 

 the fall ruu of salmon in October and November as they are the fish going to spawn 

 here and stay the winter. Spent salmon are very large fish when we see them in 

 spring. I got one at least ten xwunds, though in ' slink ' condition. They are got in 

 nets but are not fit to eat. A lot are taken but as a rule they are liberated as they 

 can't find a sale. These spent fish go down early in April as soon as the ice leaves 

 but not later. Gaspereau are dipped by Indians in Annapolis river and Lequille. 

 Formerly they dipi)ed them at Nictaux Falls. A lot of bass taken as far up as Para- 

 dise in nets. Plenty are caught in the tide five or six pounds weight. Some farmers 

 set a net wishing to get a little money out of it. The way the river is now fished is 

 ruining the whole valley and gives little remuneration to those fishing. Angling is 

 destroyed. Time and again I get letters iuqiiiring for fly fishing, but I cannot guar- 

 antee a fish to any visitor. One visitor got a salmon and he was satisfied but this year 

 the fi.-h were scarcer and I could not advise the visitor to come- Xo logs come down 

 except a few on the Xictaux. Some are rafted down but there is no great injury on 

 that account, nor does mill-rubbish cause much trouble. There is no rubbish nor 

 sawdust to speak of in the Nictaux. It can be taken care of without trouble; but at 

 one time they were to lazy to wheel it out and dropped the sawdust in the river. 



W. M. Bailey, formerly fishery officer for the Annapolis and Nictaux rivers said, 

 I have been on the rivers for forty years. The decline is very serious, indeed not one- 

 hundredth of the fish they used to produce is to be got now. The causes are mainly 

 three (1") Ovemetting. (2) Obstructions. (3) Sawdust. From Tupperville on the 

 west to Kingston on the east, there are a great number of set nets, i.e., spring or pole 

 nets, bag-like in shape for taking bass and^salmon as well as shad. The net is 20 feet 

 deep, its length 100 to 130 feet and the mesh is 3J inches of good strong salmon twine. 

 It is used in muddy water and two punts are used when fishing. Some nets are 

 licensed but others are not licensed. They are used in tide water and can be fished 

 three hours out of each tide. There are a few brush weirs down the river below Belle- 

 isle. We used to see lots of shad in the river and one man took seven cart-loads at 

 one tide at Eoundhill in the month of August, fif t.v-two years ago. A cart-load would 

 mean 300 or 400 shad. They were fat shad wholly different. They had got into the 

 wrimg river and were not the same as we get. They feed on bugs and animaleula? 

 till the last of July, and then the schools work out slowly. Sawdust ruins spawning 

 grounds killing the eggs causing fungus growth which spreads. For two years in 

 LequiUe river the gaspereau were blocked in the fish-pass there; and they died in 

 bushels about the lower dam, they rushed tip so fast. Fishways are very successful 



