INTERIM REPORT 89 



really the value. Eespecting salmon, I never bothered with them and never got Biore 

 than one or two salmon in my nets in my life, but many men catch them and some 

 are taking them now (October 9). Eels are a curse and the lakes near here leased by 

 angling clubs are full of eels. I have seen a' barrel of eels round one shad. Smelt 

 come up but only a few here, most are taken lower down. Sturgeon also occur below; 

 14 or 15 years ago some United States men got them in the river, some weighing 300 

 pounds. They cleaned them out and we get only the little ones in shad nets. Black 

 and striped bass occur, the former being, say 4 pounds, and the latter 30 or 36 pounds 

 in weight and mostly in spring. We see striped bass dead in spring when the water is 

 high; they drift on shore, some of them just dying or dead. The 'come-back' shad 

 are poor and look bloody owing to the influence of the water, as after a week or so in 

 fresh'water they get very soft. Some of these poor shad are salted and some are sold 

 fresh. A very few gizzard shad are got and they are not as bony as shad and they are 

 indeed a nice fish with a gizzard fuU of gravel like that of a fowl. The scales are fine, 

 not like those of a bass and they sell as whitefish at 6 cents a pound. In this locality 

 there is no fishery officer and no statistics of the catches are available. 



R. E. FowLEE, French Village^ King's County, said : I used to fish a lot, but now 

 I fish trout for sport occasionally. I fished for shad in Hammond river which runs 

 into Kennebecasis river, six miles below Hampton. Eighteen or twenty years ago I 

 fished for shad and they were quite plenty, far more so than now I think. We sold a 

 few and salted the rest and sold any surplus not needed for our own use. The most 

 nets we had was two. No drifting was done, we fished on the slack. K we'd drifted 

 we'd have required a new net every night owing to logs and branches and the shallow 

 streams. We bought ready made nets 4J inches mesh I think. Hardly any one fishes 

 there now. The witness. Prince, and his brothers are the only ones, but formerly every 

 one had a net. We had a fishery warden or officer then, Hines or Hiney of Norton, an 

 oldish man, but there is not one now. Martin Hopper was officer for one year, he was 

 about forty. The law about one-third width of a stream was enforced. Three years 

 ago shad were taken in one night with thirty fathoms of web taking up one-third 

 of it to thin it. Three or four nights fishing now would only give that catch. The net 

 was run down stream the top of the net being along stream not across or it would 

 have been seized. We took out the net as soon as it turned. In the lake we coidd 

 fish until daylight, but we'd look at the catch every hour or the eels would devour any 

 shad giUed, at once. Gizzard shad are eaten at once by eels as soon as they strike the 

 net as they are so soft. Pickerel are destructive on smaller fish. In spring there is 

 some still fishing. A good many salmon go up Hammond river to spawn, 15 or 20 

 pounds weight. I have seen them lying under the bridge. I saw three big ones and 

 some boys got them that very night. Portable mills put lots of sawdust in Hammond 

 river during the last year or two. The brooks are just sawdust carriers. This spring 

 numbers of small salmon four or five inches long were seen. One night this summer 

 we saw two or three dozen salmon sis or seven inches long. I have seen salmon dig 

 holes for their spawn. There is no doubt that shad spawn up this river. Shad must 

 spawn in the main river as I saw shad not -more than three inches long in Hammond 

 river. The cause of the decrease may be low water for two springs. They don't come 

 up as quickly when the water is low and they are taken in greater quantities in the 

 harbour at St. John. High water enables them to come through the reversible falls. 

 Fish move against the tide whichever way it is running and when the ebb slacks we 

 get the fish. The witness, Fred. Prince, is now the only local man making a business 

 of fishing as Applebys on the island are now out of fishing. Prince has three brothers 

 who have fished but most of them are away. Flewellings use sawdust to heat the dry 

 houses, but portable mills use slabs and dump the sawdust into brooks. Titus's dam 

 blocks the Hammond river eighteen or twenty miles from its mouth, but a lower dam 

 ia now cut through or washed out and wiU be burnt. Hook and line fishing for trout 

 and salmon are carried on as high up as that, but only one or two salmon a year are 



