Feb. tr, 1S99,] 
FORiiST AND STREAM. 
ILl 
The Quebec Game Laws. 
_A DEPUTATION of the Fish and Game Protection Sc- 
ciety of the Province of Quebec last week waited on 
Hon. S. N. Parent, Commissioner of Crown Lands, For- 
ests and Fisheries, to suggest some aherations to the 
game laws, which in the opinion of the society are nec- 
essary, for the better protection of fish and game. The 
society's representatives were President Finnic; the sec- 
retary, Mr. W. Cleghorn; Dr. F. W. Campbell, and 
Messrs. W. L. Maltby, G. Boulter, F. Wanklyn. W. 
Parker, Meredith, and Jos. Riendeau, Provincial Game 
and Fisheries Inspector. 
There are nine main provisions which the society 
wishes to see incorporated in the bill which Hon. 
Mr. Parent has on hand: The close season ex- 
tended to cover sheldrake loons and gulls, which may 
be shot throughout the year at present, and the forbid- 
ding of the slaughter of insectivorous birds at any time; 
in both these cases it is claimed that the law is taken ad- 
vantage of to carry on poaching under its shelter. A 
somewhat similar objection is made to issuing graded 
licenses of from $1.50 up to $20. and it is urged that a 
uniform license to carry a gun should be issued. The 
fourth demand is for the protection of raccoons, and the 
fifth that the taking out of a gun license should be made 
universal, but without charge to residents of the Prov- 
ince. The number of partridges has shown serious dim', 
nution during the last two years, and the deputation 
suggests that the sale of these birds should be suspended 
for three years, but not the shooting. In view of the in- 
creased depredations of wolves in the province, the dep- 
utation suggests that a bounty of $2 per head should be 
offered for their slaughter in organized counties. The 
export of trout and game fi.sh except salmon is to be for- 
bidden, but sportsmen are to be allowed to take 4o]bs. 
of their catch out of the Province. Lastly, it is asked 
that the use of any kind of net in the inland lakes and 
ponds should be entirely prohibited. 
Among those who attended the conference was Mr. 
Chas._ Stewart Davison, of New York, whose interest 111 
securing a wise system of administration for the salmon 
rivers of the Province has been demonstrated by his 
careful study of conditions and his recommendation,-; 
based upon such study. Mr. Davison .sends us the sub- 
joined letter, which has been sent by him to Commis- 
sioner Parent : 
Jan, 30.— Hon. S. N. Parent, Commissioner of Lands, 
Forests and Fishcrie.s, Quebec, Canada— My dear ,sir: T 
take the first opportunity after my return from 5'-iebec 
to wiito, botli thanking you for your nianv courtesies 
durmg tny visit, and also— if you will pernn't me so to do— 
fo compliment you tipon the firm and enlightened policy 
which it is evident the Province, under your guidance. 
])urp(>,<cs adopting in relation to fish and game, and 
more particularly in relation to the preservation of sal- 
mon. 
All_ the attendant facts in relation to this asset of the 
Province I feel are already so well within your grasp that 
there is nothing I can add which would tend to further 
illumine your mind upon the subject, and yet I cannot 
refrain from briefly recapitulating those leading argu- 
ments which bear so directly upon the advisability of 
rigidly restricting netting in the estuaries. The rivers of 
the Province are tlie storehouse, the breeding ground, the 
natural hatcheries. From the time the salmon approach 
the mouth of a river, pursuing the natural instinct of the 
■ fish, until the time when they return from the rivers to 
the sea, they should be scrupulously guarded, exactly as 
a farmer protects his breeding ewes or the productive 
cows of his flock of sheep or herd of cattle. 
To allow the placing of a net in an estuarv is for the 
Province to accept at the mouth of the river perhaps $50 
as the purchase price from it of that which twenty miles 
further up the same river, at an expense of some thou- 
sands of dollars per annum, it must attempt to put back 
by means of an artificial hatchery. 
If the netter in a river's mouth will pay the full annual 
expense to the Government of supporting a hatchery 
further up the river, he will be then returning to the 
Government the real value of his netting privilege. 
The whole question is simply the question of "pro- 
tecting" fish in the same way that one would, as I have 
stated, conduct a stock farm of cattle, sheep, horses or 
any other domestic animals. 
A_ netting privilege in an estuary means in fact the 
placing of at least two (sometimes five or more) nets 
stretching out into the narrowing waters from the shore, 
so that their ends (even if they are not opposite each 
other) will overlap any straight Hne which can be drawn 
down the channel. 
This means that the great majority of the breeding fish 
of that particular river must be taken on their way to 
the spawning grounds ; and the principle which you have 
' adopted in the bill which you have prepared — a basic line 
within which, on either side of the estuary, no net shall 
be set — is absolutely the only way to prevent the barring 
of the channel to an approaching fish. 
Salmon naturally, almost, one might say necessarily 
follow the stream or current (especially when the tide is 
out) . 
The barring of the channel can only be prevented by a 
suihcient reserved space on each side of the estuary. 
This matter of estuary netting is. as I ventured to point 
out to you, the subject to-day of the same struggle in 
England- which you are so happily solving for the Pro- 
vince of Quebec. In England they have to contend against 
ancient private grants from the Crown no longer subject 
to strict regulation by the fisheries commissioners. But in 
the Province of Quebec, as is pointed out in one of the ap- 
pendices to your annual report, a much more fortunate 
state of affairs .exists in this respect. The Province itself 
still owns the absolute riglit to and the control of the 
estuaries, and no prescriptive rights exist to prevail 
against the benefit of the many, the good of the people at 
large, while merely subserving, the selfish interest of the 
very few. 
I venture to remind you in this connection of the 
argument which was advanced at the meeting held on the 
24th instant: that people at some of the rivers were be- 
ginning to think they had prescriptive rights because 
for m.any 3'ears they had had licenses. It is against th-?- 
future prevailing of this "counsel of ewP'that it becomes 
Y*^ fellowcraftf member, 
jDr. George McAleer 
Of (^uinsigamond Plantation, now 
called Hearte of Commonwealthe, 
sen£>0 ©reetinge, and warns brother 
hood to meete in his goodlie citie JANUARY 
28th, Anno Domini 1899^ to make y** day 
merrie fyshinge through the ice for y^ 
Pickerel. 
For y« disporte he will furnish all y^ 
tilts and bait, but y^ Brotherhood will 
bring emptie stummicks and chunks of 
fun to make divertisement in plentie. 
Nota Bene. — To y^ best storle goes y« 
biggest fyshe. 
DR. GEORGE McALEER'S INVITATION CARD. 
the more important to now enact the provision which you 
have put into the statute, so that hereafter, while in 
special cases where it may be desirable for other reasons 
licenses m.ay be permitted, nevertheless no one will be 
able to claim that he enjoys such license as a matter of 
right, but in each instance it will be matter of special 
favor, and be liable to be revoked or extinguished when- 
ever it becomes demonstrated that the supply of fish is 
injuriously affected in the particular instance by its ex- 
istence. 
If, as I have said to you before, it were the fact that 
salmon which were bred in rivers, say along the Labrador 
coast or in the Arctic, would indiscriminately enter your 
rivers, then nature's general storehouse might be called 
upon to keep all the rivers stocked. But as is so well 
known, each river in the Province is compelled by natural 
laws to be substantially its own storehouse, and one by 
one as the rivers are exhausted they definitely cease to 
be salmon rivers until restocked and protected. 
As was said in one of the discussions before you, there 
are to-day in the Province (including all rivers from 
Niagara Falls to Blanc Sablon on the north, and to New 
Brunswick on the south) at least 200 rivers which were 
once productive salmon rivers, and could be made so 
again every one of them, and leased at several hundred 
dqllars_ apiece a year, which nevertheless to-d.ay are (from 
this point of view) worthless. Let us see what this would 
mean to the Province. 
Let us suppose that these rivers were to-day, as they 
once were, well stocked with salmon. Some of them have 
been in the past and would be again remarkably, even 
•enormously, productive, and would lease for large .sums. 
Others, smaller rivers, or in which the fish- run of smaller 
■sizes, would not lease at such high figures. But an 
average rental of $500 would not be an extravagant but a 
very modest figure to assume. This would mean to the 
Province primarily $100,000. Let us now consider what it 
Avould mean further. It would mean 200 more angling 
parties each year in the Province. It is fair to assume 
that from two to twenty men (on the average say- four) 
would be permanently e.inployed on every river, their 
average ivages (including nourishment) could not be 
placed at legs than ^400 per annum. This wctjld mean an 
Item of $320,000 in wages. Again, 200 parties of anglers 
either building houses or fitting out with tents, camp out- 
fits, food (for three weeks or more each year), and ob- 
taining, as they do, because of cheaper prices, flies, reels, 
leaders, lines, rods and other paraphernalia in Quebec and 
Montreal, assuming that each party did not average more 
than three persons, and they did not expend more than 
$200 apiece (which I know to be a very low figure), would 
mean an additional $120,000 spent in the Province. 
Their railroad and steamboat or wagon transportation 
and the employment of attendants while on the rivers 
adds still further items to the accruing benefits from 
their presence. 
But another and still njore important point arises, and I 
do not hesitate to bring it to your attention somewhat at 
length, for the reason that it has not as yet been men- 
tioned. 
The constant traversing of your forests and visiting of 
your rivers by persons from the United States who visit 
the Province of Quebec to angle for salmon. This 
means a continual inspection of your natural resources in 
timber, pulp wood, water powers, by numerous persons be- 
longing to the class of those who invest in manufacturing 
enterprises. Is it to be doubted that any device by which 
the Province of Quebec could cause a number of Amer- 
ican business men to annually visit and inspect her timber 
limits and water powers would tend directly to the ex- 
ploitation and development of the natural resources of the 
country. 
The salmon anglers of the United States are largely 
men of affairs seeking rest and recreation — ^off on their 
vacations. The question for the Province to decide from 
this point of view is : 
"Will the Province take such steps as will induce these 
people te spend their vacations in the Province of Quebec, 
or does the Province prefer to have them go to Maine, 
Scotland or Norway?" 
Permit me also to recall to your attention a further 
suggestion which was made to you. The Province in 
issuing angling licenses should bear in mind that there 
should be in every angling license the reservation of the 
whole of some, designated tributary of the river (to tje 
selected, by your Department after a" sufficient examination 
