PRESERVATION OE SALMON" IN CANADA. / 



be admitted that the great distance at which they are situated from 

 Civilization, the want of the means of intercourse between them and 

 the inhabited parts of the country, the liability to trespass by armed 

 ruffians, and the dreadful rigor of the climate in winter, present very 

 serious obstacles to those who might wish to undertake such manage- 

 ment : for obviating some of which I see no better method than the 

 employment, during the summer months, of one or two armed steam- 

 ers of light draught of water, such as are used for a similar purpose 

 on the east coast of Denmark. These steamers should each have a 

 commander on board, who should be a magistrate and empowered by 

 parliament to act summarily in cases of infraction of the Fishery 

 Laws, and beside supplying the lighthouses and other public works 

 with stores, oil, building materials, etc., conveying the workmen man- 

 agers and fishermen to their several stations, and protecting the les- 

 sees of the Province, might also be profitably employed as the means 

 of transporting the fresh caught salmon from the several rivers, pack- 

 ed in ice, to the Rail-road Stations at St. Thomas and Quebec ; from 

 whence they could be distributed to the markets of Canada and the 

 United States. Two Bills for the protection of salmon and trout in 

 Lower Canada have recently become Acts of Parliament. These 

 may possibly be productive of some good in civilized and inhabited 

 districts, but must be utterly ineffective in those parts of the Province 

 where there are no settled inhabitants, no magistrates, and no tribunals 

 before which those who infringe the Law can be cited ; and this is the 

 case of all the best rivers in Lower Canada. 



I cannot close these observations without endeavoring to impress 

 on all who hear me, the necessity for prompt action in this matter ; 

 for there can be no doubt upon the mind of any man who is acquaint- 

 ted with/the localities, that if the King's Posts should be abandoned 

 by the Hudson's Bay Company, before some well devised system be 

 adopted for carrying on the work which they have hitherto effected, 

 two melancholy results will be the inevitable consequences, viz. — 

 the salmon rivers will be taken possession of by hordes of lawless 

 men, who will in no way contribute to the revenue of the country, 

 but will quickly and recklessly exterminate the fish, and then desert 

 our shores, leaving behind them no trace of their temporary occupa- 

 tion except the destruction they have wrought — and more terrible 

 still — a whole tribe of Indians (the Montagnards) will be reduced to 

 a state of positive starvation, for upon the Hudson's Bay Company 

 they have hitherto been, and are nowdependent for their ammunition, 

 guns, and other means by which they obtain their food and clothing. 



