52 SEA TEOUT. 



laws hare been passed and will be enforced by the Cana- 

 dian government, and the American fisherman m^y 

 find in neighboring waters what he will never again see 

 in his own, these noble fish dwelling in abundance, and 

 protected from worthless, wanton and unreasonable 

 destruction. 



It is a burning shame, a foul blot on the character of 

 Americans, and tarnish on their reputation lor far-sighted 

 economy, that their only idea of the treatment of the 

 wild game of' the woods and waters seems to be tot-al 

 annihilation. " After me a desert," is their motto ; and 

 they never rest till, by planting snares and liming 

 streams, they have caught the last partridge and poi- 

 soned the last fish. Thus have they already destroyed 

 one of the most valuable resources of the country ; the 

 Hudson, the Connecticut, the Penobscot, and even the 

 Kennebec, yield no more salmon, and we yearly pay to 

 Canada enormous sums for what we once had, and might 

 still have, in plenty on our own shores. Not many 

 years ago a person buying shad on the Connecticut 

 River was required to take such a proportion of salmon. 

 Now that the head-waters are covered with tanneries and 

 eaw-mills, and are crossed by dams without the simple 

 expedient of a flume that the fish could ascend, and now 

 that early salmon are worth a dollar a pound in New 

 Tork market, where are the former denizens of the Con- 

 necticut ? 



All the timber cut on the streams would not pay for 

 the damage done to the fisheries. In Canada the people 

 have discovered, fortunately for them not too late, the 

 importance of stringent protective laws. The nets can 



