4s ON THE DECREASE, BESTOEATION AND 



"Near Katrineberg, there is a valuable fishery for salmon, ten or 

 twelve thousand of these fish being taken annually. These salmon 

 are bred in a lake, and, in consequence of cataracts, cannot have ac- 

 cess to the sea. They are small in size and inferior in flavor," which 

 may also be asserted of salmon taken in the neighborhood of Toronto. 

 Mr. Scrope, in his work previously quoted, states that Mr. George 

 Dormer, of Stone Mills, in the Parish of Bridport, put a female of 

 the salmon tribe, which measured twenty inches in length, and was 

 caught by him at his mill-dam, into a small well, where it remained 

 twelve years, became quite tame and familiar, so as to feed from the 

 hand, and was visited by many persons of respectability from Exeter 

 and its neighborhood. 



But the fact that salmon are annually taken near the Credit, the 

 Humber and Bond Head is sufficient ground on which to base my 

 argument for the probability that were the tributary streams of the 

 St. Lawrence accessible to them they would ascend and again stock 

 them with a numerous progeny. Even were this found not to be the 

 case, — then we have the system of artificial propagation to fall back 

 upon — a system -which according to the Parliamentary Exports of the 

 Fishery Commissioners has been practised with immense success in 

 different parts of Ireland — according to M. Coste, Member of the 

 Institute, and professor of the college of France, in his reports to 

 the French Academy and the French Government, has answered 

 admirably in France, and according to Mr. W. H. Fry and others, 

 quoted by him in his treatise on artificial fish-breeding, has been gen- 

 erally effective in Scotland. This system, as is well known, consists 

 simply of transporting from one river to another the impregnated eggs 

 of the salmon, and placing them in shallow waters with a gentle cur- 

 rent where they are soon hatched, and become salmon fry or par and 

 able to take care of themselves. In consequence of the ova of the 

 salmon, which are deposited in the spawning beds in the months of 

 October, November and December, becoming congealed by frost in 

 the subsequent months, Canada appears to offer greater facilities for 

 their safe transport than those countries in which the system has been 

 so successful, but whose climates are more temperate. Surely, sup- 

 posing this is a mere untried experiment — which is far from being the 

 case — it would be well worth the while of some of the many wealthy 

 and intelligent dwellers upon the banks of our beautiful rivers to 

 test its value, particularly when they call to mind the well known fact 

 in the natural history of the salmon, that he invariably returns to the 

 stream in which his youth was spent, and that so they may calculate 



