PBESEBVATION OP SALMON IN CANADA. 3 



their powers are limited or augmented according to the depth of wa- 

 ter Ihey spring from ; in shallow water they have little power of 

 ascension, in deep they have the most considerable. They rise very 

 rapidly from the very bottom to the surface of the water by means of 

 rowing and sculling as it were, with their fins and tail, and this pow- 

 erful impetus bears them upwards in the air, on the same principle 

 that a few tugs of the oar make a boat shoot onwards after one has 

 ceased to row." However this may be, we know that salmon use 

 almost incredible efforts to ascend their native rivers. Modes have 

 recently been adopted in France, in England, Scotland and Ireland, 

 by which they can do so with ease, and which can be much more 

 cheaply applied to Miil-dams in Canada, than in any of the countries 

 above mentioned. This is simply by constructing below each mill- 

 dam a congeries of wooden boxes proportioned to the height of the 

 dam — which could be done, in any weirs I have seen requiring them, 

 for a sum not exceeding twenty dollars. We will suppose that the 

 mill-dam to be passed over is fifteen feet high from the surface of the 

 water, and that the salmon can surmount the height of five feet at a 

 single bound, then it would be only necessary to erect two boxes, 

 each five feet high, one over the other (as in the illustration) to enable 

 the salmon, in three leaps, to reach the waters which nature prompts 

 him to seek for the propagation of his species. In many Canadian 

 rivers — such as Metis, Matane, Rimouski, Trois Saumons, etc. — this 

 simple apparatus might be put in operation for one half the sum I 

 have mentioned, and I trust it has only to be suggested to the gentle- 

 men residing on their banks to arouse their patriotism and excite them 

 to activity in the matter. There can be no doubt that were the mill- 

 dams removed, or boxes constructed adjacent to them, and protection 

 afforded to the spawning fish, many of the rivers in Upper Canada 

 would again abound with Salmon. I have myself, within a few years, 

 taken the true Salmo Salar in Lake Ontario, near Kingston, and 

 many persons in Toronto know that they are taken annually at the 

 mouths of the Credit, the Humber and at Bond Head, in the months 

 of May and June, which is earlier than they are generally killed 

 below Quebec. Whether these fish come up the St. Lawrence in the 

 early spring, under the pavement of ice which then rests upon its 

 surface, or whether they have spent the winter in Lake Ontario, is a 

 question which I must leave to naturalists ; merely mentioning that 

 there is some foundation for believing that salmon will not only live, 

 but breed, in fresh water, without visiting the sea. Mr. Lloyd, in 

 his interesting work on the field sports of the North of Europe, says, 



