INTERIM REPORT 73 



weighted down or anchored with stones. I got seven years ago 100 shad in a night, 

 uiit 10 as now, and in the season I caught 900- to 1,000, but only 30 all this season. I 

 -;iy shut down for four or fire years- Fishermen can't make it pay now. Lota of 

 men did not pay for their gear out of their catch, it was so poor, and my gear only 

 worth about $10. The female shad run up first, only an odd male being amongst the 

 first fish which are very large, 5 to 8 pounds. The males come in 10 days later, being 

 smaller in size and more mixed. The fish are so ripe that the spawn runs from them 

 when we throw them into the bottom of the boat. There are no shad after the 20th of 

 June. I tried to get a salmon later, but we are not allowed to fish a net really for 

 salmon, and I would have got a shad had any been running. We catch ' come-backs ' 

 and they are very diiferent in coloin- owing to being so long in fresh water, being 

 white, flabby, soft and very sharp on the belly. They arc very different from the thick 

 heavy fish got earlier and of no market value. Both males and females are equally 

 poor. They are sold chietly in Halifax, but I have caught many and sold them to local 

 .lealors here. One dealer (Charlton) would have given 10 cents for them, hence men 

 so anxious to catch them. The shad arc caught going up and down, but most seem 

 to be moving down when taken in the nets. 



Nineteenth Sitting. 



Court House, Truro, X.S., August 28, 190S. 



The sitting having been formally opened by Professor Prince and Mr. S. F. Morri- 

 son, the taking of evidence was procee<led with. 



S. D. MaClellak, K.C, said that there is very little fishing in the Salmon or the 

 North river, but formerly large quantities of salmon even within the town limits of 

 'J'ruro. The water is still pure, there being very little pollution or sawdust. There is 

 the dam at Union. Eeports are current that salmon below the dam are found in quan- 

 tity and it is also reported that poachers take great numbers of them. Poachers are 

 the greatest exterminators and the fish are u>ed locally. A few trout, both river and sea 

 trout occur, but no great quantity. The fishing is so poor that no anglers would come 

 a distance to fish, indeed I myself go to Xewfoundland "for salmon fishing. There is 

 no reason why Salmon river should not equal Robinson's Brook, Newfoundland, where 

 one angler, his wife, two sons and a daughter employed five guides and paid $500 for 

 21 days' services, thus giving those people their living for the whole year. In addition 

 it costs such anglers a good deal to get there, yet they are willing to spend the money 

 for a short angling holiday. Newfoundland gets a large number of tourists. I knew 

 of twenty anglers on ten miles of one stream. Some of the anglers came as far south 

 as Philadelphia, and from Boston, and many from this very province. Nova Scotia. 

 The oflBcers came round every day to see that the fish were properly caught and poach- 

 ing prevented. All tilings con.~idercd. the protected rivers are a great source of in- 

 come for the whole country, I never see any wardens or fishery officers on our rivers 

 here. There is some sawdust pollution at Riversdale. Respecting the shad they used 

 to be very plentiful, and thousands of barrels were shipped each year from Great 

 Village to Boston and New York. I myself remember pitch-forking five to twenty in 

 th'e holes on the flats in a day. The local consumption was important both to the 

 householder and the dealer. They were a very delicate fish and are much missed. In- 

 stead of whole schooner loads being shipped away not evien barrels of shad can be got 

 without difficulty. Roe shad have been destroyed. I have seen in this market (Truro) 

 shad from the Stewiacke and Shubenacadie rivers which on examination were seen to 



