INTERIM REPORT 87 



till the spawning was done, but I always noticed tlie spawn iu the St. John river sliad 

 brought here in vessels in ilarch and April. The spawn was the biggest part of the 

 fish. The shad were not so good as ours, indeed they are not so good anywhere when 

 they have spawn in them as they are without spawn. The cause of the present scar- 

 city is the catching of them before spawning, the winter fishing. Formerly 100 bar- 

 rels were taken at a tide, but it is all over these days. There is not one living except- 

 ing Jim Dixon, who lives three miles down the shore, who had a share in a shad weir, 

 he is CS years of age. The weirs were put in about the first of June, that was the time 

 the first shad were taken. There were No. I's and No. 2's, and No. 3's were called 

 ' round ' shad. The weirs were built of brush and stone and they took two weeks 

 building. No trout were taken in the weirs. Salmon were caught, sometimes 100 or 

 200 at a tide, and large cod once in a while, also skate, lobsters, &c. 



Leonard ^Martin said that the local fisheries were much changed. All made good 

 catches formerly when there were six weirs in five miles of shore here. I have known 

 the fisheries for 30 years, and fish were plentiful. The fishing was by brush weirs and 

 a few fishing boats. Out of one weir, not more than 4 feet high, I have known 100 

 barrels of fish taken on one side. I have a seine 8 feet high and I don't take two bar- 

 rels. There has been a gradual decrease every year in salmon and shad. Men came 

 and drifted down from Hopewell cape and Westmoreland to Martin Head and made 

 good catches. Eight years ago Buckland, of Alma, tried the drifting and got a few 

 fish, but it did not pay. He tried one season only. The depletion is due to sawdust. 

 The gills of fish in weirs are full of sawdust. I'd stop the sawdust first and mill 

 refuse. My weir has often 2 feet of sawdust in it, not floating but water-logged, 

 hardwood sinks quicker than spruce. Lobster traps are two-thirds full of sawdust. It 

 floats out all the time from April to September. The flats are covered with it though 

 the mills closed for over a month. There are windrows of it 2 and 3 feet high and 

 driftwood. The shad worms or food are buried under it. In every 1,000 logs the saw- 

 dust is 1 or li inches. The mill on Upper Salmon river should put in a proper saw- 

 dust burner, it is a good place for one. The present burner is no good as the wind 

 carries half of it away into the river. It might be placed at one side, opposite side of 

 the bank and would not cost much. I'd like to see the shad come back. Our spring 

 shad were 7 to 7i pounds in weight and less, and were not poor but fair conditioned 

 shad; the July shad are large and a little better than the June fish. There were two 

 nms of shad, fall and spring, but the fall were fat and iu good condition, and 

 about five pounds weight our fish used to run one hundred to a barrel, but my 

 total catch this season did not amount to that, I did not get enough to supply 

 the village. I have seen St. John river shad but not opened, but I heard that 

 they are poor. I never saw spawn in any, but never opened any. The salmon have 

 decreased. The brooks were formerly full of them going up to spawn. At one sweep 

 of a net 20 or 30 would be got. Now there are very few. This summer about 100 

 taken, the largest I got weighed 18 pounds. The average is 8 pounds down to 4 

 pounds, hut very small ones are few. They are firm solid fish and sell here at 14 cents 

 a pound. On Martin's Head river there has been no sawmill for 12 or 15 years and 

 the river is full of salmon, lots have been got. Years ago we would get 200 or 300 on 

 one tide, but the sawdust has kept them out. This is proved by the river just men- 

 tioned with no sawdust and it is full of salmon. There is a fine salmon pool with 

 plenty of salmon in it just below the dam. 



