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THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



we want a long-headed, pushing man like 

 Prof. S. F. Baird of Washington. A writer in 

 the St. John (N.B.) Sun, seems to know more 

 about our native food fishes, than the men at 

 present in office. The Fisheries Department 

 should be allowed facilities to form a museum 

 of animals of economic value, coming from 

 our marine and fresh waters, with the same 

 opportunity to display objects of this kind here 

 and at road, as are extended to the Geological 

 Museum. By the way, what are the natural 

 ists connected with the latter institution doing? 

 Why cannot one or two of them be sent to 

 help Mr. Gregory down the Gulf? One man 

 can do very little work in so short a time, 

 especially on a steamer, and where is he to 

 procure the material ? It is absurd to send 

 a man on an expedition of this kind. A 

 good Taxidermist should have at least two 

 assistants, besides means of procuring speci- 

 mens. What has become of the objects 

 collected in the deep sea dredgings in the 

 Gulf? A schooner was employed to cruise 

 in the Lower St. Lawrence, and it had a good 

 crew to assist the dredging party, but some- 

 thing should be shown for the outlay. The 

 Department of the Interior should also be at 

 work. It has as much to do in procuring 

 material for the coming Exhibition as a similar 

 Department in the United States. Manitoba 

 and the N. W. Territories have be be 

 represented ; in fact the fish products of the 

 latter regions are not even known in Ontario 

 or Quebec. If we discover that the naturalists 

 of the Geological Survey are lacking in energy, 

 then something further must be said. The 

 above statement is made that the publie may 

 learn something in regard to matters of this 

 nature. The Montreal Star stated lately that 

 Canadian museums had nothing Ichthyologi- 

 cal to send to the London Exhibition. The 

 writer made a mis-statement, as we know that 

 Toronto University Museum contains a fine 

 Canadian collection of Fishes and Beptiles. 

 Laval University has quite a number of 

 stuffed food fishes in its museum, and the 



Literary and Historical Society of Quebec 

 possesses a fair fish exhibit. The Natural 

 History society of Montreal has a very good 

 collection of the same material, and if the 

 above institutions wished to send their com- 

 bined collections to England, the total would 

 be larger probably than that to be brought 

 together by Scotland and England. But 

 museum collections are not loaned, especially 

 to go out of the country. We know a gentle- 

 man who has had experience of this kind ; he 

 made a loan of stuffed fishes for the Paris 

 Exhibition ; they were not returned, nor never 

 will be. The fact is, they were supposed to 

 be Government property, and it is therefore 

 probable that they are at present in a French 

 or British Museum. — C. 



FISH-BREEDING IN CANADA. 



We have before us, " The Daily Sun," St. 

 John, N.B., containing over five columns of a 

 review on Superintendent Wilmot's Report on 

 Fish-Breeding. The writer in the Sun, 

 although well posted in Ichthyology, com- 

 ments rather severely, in fact spitefully against 

 Mr. Wilmot's efforts to hatch fish. The re- 

 viewer charges as follows : — That " he (Mr. 

 W.) failed in his quixotic enterprise ; " — giving 

 "glowing accounts in his characteristic style 

 of florid description and incorrect statement; " 

 that he kept " salmon stored up from July 

 until November in that cesspool, the Carleton 

 mill-pond, into which the sewerage of a large 

 part of Carleton is drained," and further 

 " that the Government has been paying vast 

 sums of money in teaching this blunderer his 

 science." The reviewer in the Sun has a 

 perfect right to make a clean dissection of Mr. 

 Wilmot's report, but when an attack is 

 made upon a man's energy to develope and 

 increase food fishes for the rich and poor of 

 Canada, we think ii is unjust to use such 

 harsh language. Mr. Wilmot honestly states 

 that he has failed in breeding Salmo salar on 

 the borders of Lake Ontario, and he gives the 

 cause. In fact, we were almost certain that 

 the hatching of the latter species, so far in 

 land, would ultimately fail. The Fisheries 

 Department are greatly to blame for allowing 

 so many stake-nets to block up the entrances 

 of rivers. If salmon and trout are to be 





