DUVAR — -ON ADDITIONS TO GAME IN NOVA SCOTIA. 69 



■desirable importation, (a crustacean,) which though not game itself, 

 is nevertheless a capital addition to a game supper, the cancer pa gu- 

 rus, or large edible crab so abundant on the shores of Britain, 

 ■especially along the east coast of Scotland. Nothing could be 

 easier than to stock our seaboard with this excellent shell-fish. 

 The writer chanced about three years ago to be the fellow-passenger 

 to Europe of some tubs of live lobsters, which were sent from the 

 shores of Maine, via Halifax, to the emperor of France; and 

 thought at the time it would be a good thing were the tubs re- 

 turned to the governor of Nova Scotia, filled with live crayfish and 

 edible crabs, in return for the lobster salads the French savans have 

 doubtless ere this enjoyed from lobsters native to the coast of 

 Acadia. 



By the way, there is one other fish which ought to abound in 

 every brook and rivulet, viz., Leuciscus phoxinus, or true minnow. 

 They have only to be thrown into any suitable water to increase 

 and multiply for the angler's use. They may be drawn from several 

 ■of the streams near Halifax to stock other breeding places. 



In a pleasing book by an American sportsman occurs the follow- 



. ing passage, not inappropriate to the subject of this paper : — * 



"There is a very erroneous impression, encouraged too, shame to 

 say, that the wild creatures of the woods and waters must, in the nature 

 of things, disappear before man. Now, although this is a lamentable 

 fact, it is not a necessary consequence, and there is nothing in man's 

 capturing fish and killing game, properly and reasonably, that will 

 seriously diminish their numbers. Fish and birds prey on one another : 

 for every large trout a man takes he saves a himdred small ones ; for 

 every hawk he catches hovering over his barnyard and hills, he saves a 

 hundred quail, and thus, although he kills them himself, he preserves 

 them from vermin, from one another, and from birds of prey. If he 

 will add to this a very little care and protection of the young, he will 

 increase the supply a thousand fold." 



In conclusion, I have only to add, that an increase in the 



number and variety of our game must be an object of interest to 



every one who takes pleasure in out-of-door life, and, I think and 



hope, is alike within the province of the sportsman and the 



naturalist. 



Let me hope that these imperfect notes may lead to more 



practical investigation, and tend, in a slight degree, to show the 



value, as preserves, of our forests and rivers, in Avhich the game at 



present is so mischievously and wantonly wasted. 



* Game Fish of the North : New York, 1862. 



