PEOPAGATION OF FISH. 231 



in fact, the sportsmen "would take the affair into their 

 own hands, if the proper legislation could be obtained. 

 But so long as private individuals are allowed to dam 

 the water^courses by an obstruction so constructed that 

 the fish cannot surmount it, so long will private enter- 

 prise and public effort both be in vain. A dam, no mat- 

 ter how high, is rendered entirely harmless by being pro- 

 vided with a narrow sluice'^ay or flume, a few feet wide 

 and leading to the water Tjeneath, or by boxes placed 

 one below another, making a number of small leaps. 

 This the salmon can surmount, even with a moderate 

 depth of water, and will, if left undisturbed, readily 

 ascend at night. It occasions no loss to the proprietor, 

 is built at little expense, and yet the want of it has cost 

 our State alone millions. It is now required in the dams 

 of Lower Canada, where effective laws have lately been 

 found necessary to preserve the fish even there from 

 annihilation, and could be introduced on all our streams 

 for one-tenth the annual tax we pay to the British Pro- 

 vinces for salmon. With the destruction of the forests, 

 saw-miUs, those enemies of fish-kind, haVe' greatly dimin- 

 ished, and could easily be so regulated as to do no harm, 

 and as the same thing may be said of the tanneries, there 

 need be nothing to drive the fish away were the waters 

 replenished. This we sportsmen will imdertake to do, if 

 our legislature will, for a few moments, forget Eepubli- 

 can and Democrat, and attend to the interests of their 

 constituents by passing laws similar to these enacted for 

 the Canadas. 



It is strange indeed that, while we pay a heavy bounty 

 to our countrymen engaged in the cod fisheries, we 



