August 21, 1875, 
311 
with fresh confidence, I liad the canoe anchored a few 
rods below the first place. Just as Andre dropped his 
•Stone overboard, I saw a fish jump about twenty yards 
down the stream from us, and, commencing on a short 
cast and gradually lengthening my line, at last reached 
the spot where he had shown him.self. A moment of 
anxieiy as the fly passed right over where I knew the 
fish must be, and then wdth a swirl, and showing half 
his side, he rose and went down, taking the fl}’ with 
him. So soon as he stopped I struck firmly, and the 
fish, feeling the steel, started oft' like lightning diagon- 
ally across and down the river, taking out about fifty 
yards of line with a rapidity which made my reel sing 
like a bnzz-saw and the rod tremble from tip to. butt. 
At th(‘ end of this run the fish, partially turning, made 
his first lea]) out of water, then dashing across the stream 
jumped again and sought the bottom for a moment’s 
rest. This moment I improved in getting to shore ; but 
before I was fairly out of the canoe the fish had started 
off agaiu, and in spite of my running down the beach 
alter him, had gained about fifty feet more of my line, 
and brought up sulkily behind a large stone under the 
ojtposite bank. This gave me an opportunity to reel up 
and collect my scattered senses, but I could not get the 
fish to do anything more than now and then give a suc- 
cession of short and vicious tugs at the line, and at last 
1 had to send Andre over with the canoe to start him 
out. Leaving the rock with a speed which made my reel 
hum, he went sailing down stream steadily, stopping 
occasionally for an instant to try and rub the hook out 
against some stone. This trick of a salmon’s, which is 
olteu successful, communicates a very peculiar vibra- 
tion through the line to the rod, which shakes as if it 
had been sharply tapped with a stick at the butt. The 
water was good for half a mile farther dowm, so I did 
not. check my fish as sharply as I might, not wanting to 
throw away a single chance. His runs began to grow 
shorter and he to yield a little to the pressure exercised 
to bring him toward the beach. At last I got him up to 
within ten feet of the shore, and told Peter'to go down 
and try to gaff him, getting below the fish, which I 
should then, by easing on the line, let go down past him 
tail foremost. Peter was a very poor gaffer, however, 
and made a motion which the fish saw, and off he w'ent 
a.gain with seemingly a new supply of strength and 
game. This time, at the end of his run, he came to the 
surface of the water and thrashed about, trying to break 
the line with his tail. It took twenty minutes more to 
get him in position to be gaffed, and when finally Peter 
terminated his gallant fight I was quite used up, as 
much from excitement as exertion, and lay down on’the 
beach by the side of my victim deliciously fatigued and 
joyful “adunguem.” 
The fish weighed tw^enly-three pounds and was the 
finest in condition and color of any I killed. Peter, 
who had gaffed him very awkwardly, bragged a good 
deal of the skill he had di.splayed, and he and An- 
dre assumed a much more deferential air toward me 
than they had hitherto used. Both Indians were re- 
markable for a stupidity which each fully appreciated 
in the other; for example: on one occasion, when Peter 
had made several futile attempts to gaff a fish, Andre, 
who was standing near me, remarked as though to him- 
self: Peter dam fool.” Hot five minutes later Andre, 
despite my remonstrances, allowed .the canoe to drop 
down directly through a part of the pool where we had 
seen a fish jump, when Peter, turning around to me, 
said in a whisper: “Dat Andre dam fool.” Both, in 
their rude, untutored way, liad approximated to the 
truth. 
Going back to the pool I very soon killed another 
smaller fish, and as it was getting late in the afternoon 
started back to the camp with the two salmon in front 
of me in the canoe, where I could feast my eyes upon 
them without turning. I found the General and Haines 
had given up salmon fishing, not having seen one since 
I left, and with their light tackle had had a good after- 
noon with the trout at the mouth of a little brook which 
flowed into the river. The next day the General went 
to Metapedia, and in the afternoon sent back a messen- 
ger with the welcome news that the lessee of the Resti- 
gouche, whom he had met there, had kindly given us 
permission to fish his river. Accordingly we made a 
raft to transport our luggage down, and that night 
liitched our tent on a beautiful bluff at the junction of 
the Upsalquich and Restigouche, and just over the pool. 
Here we were comparatively free from flies, with good 
fishing all about us and a delightful view up and down 
both rivers. 
Friday evening Mowat, the indefatigable -guardian of 
the river, stopped to sec us on his way down to visit 
the tideway nets. He remained to dinner that night, 
and we accepted an invitation to visit him the next day 
at his home, Dee-Side, three miles up the Restigouche. 
When we reached Mowat’s the next morning, we found 
he had a ver}' comfortable house, beaut ifttlly situated 
near the river, and bearing more evidences of taste and 
culture inside and out than anything we had seen in the 
Province. The oldest boy, a lad of eleven or twelve 
years, was already a good fisherman, and could handle 
a canoe remarkably well for his age. After looking 
about the premises, and examining the propagating 
house, whence this season eight hundred thousand sal- 
mon fry have been turned into the river, the Genend 
and I started otit to a pool above the house to try our 
luck with the fish, Haines going some distance down. 
.Just below this pool w-as a stretch of smooth and swift 
water very like that near our camp, except that it was 
about three-quarters of a mile long. Finding nothing 
in the pool we gradually dropped down into this shal- 
lower place, and had no sooner reached there than we 
each hooked a fish. Jline was soon brought to gaff and 
weighed fourteen anda-half pounds. The General had 
more trouble with his, but landed him in half an hour — 
the second largest fish killed, though not a remarkably 
strong or active one. He turned the scale at twenty- 
nine pounds, and the General, covered with glory, im- 
mediately retired to Jlowat’s house, where he remained 
the rest of the day, a prey to the liveliest satisfaction. 
And now I come to the saddest, as well as the most 
delightful part of my experience, of which I can’t even 
write without emotion— the contest with my “big fish,” 
in which I came out second best. 
I booked him just in front of Mowat’s house; he rose 
to the same small dark Nicholson fly I had killed the 
other salmon with. His first rush was not rapid as he 
started off, but a steady, lasting gait that showed con- 
scious power. As he went on his speed increased, until 
he had about sixty yards of line out, which I was ob- 
liged to give him in order not to take the canoe past the 
only spot w'here, for some distance, we could land. 
As soon as I reached the beach I stai-ted down and be- 
gan to reel in, but had only gained a few feet of line 
when the fish took another rush down-stream, and for a 
couple of hundred yards kept me going at full speed 
over a very rough country, composed chiefly of drift- 
wood, stumps and large rocks. When he halted, which 
he did after jumping twice more, I had about ten yards 
of line left, and despite my fatigue and brui.ses (I had 
fallen flat over a large rock) had to keep on as fast as I 
could reel up. I had hardly gained half my line when 
off went the fish again, and I had another foot-race 
which left my reel almost bare. At the conclusion of 
this burst he jumped again, and then began coming 
toward me. This is an exceedingly dangerous thing 
for a salmon to do, and if not .soon checked certainly 
results in his breaking loose, as the current makes the 
line sag down-stream, and it is sure to catch on some of 
the rocks, which all have their sharp edges pointed in 
the direction of the current. Fortunately the canoe 
was some distance above me, and the Indians brought 
it over the fish, and turned him down-stream before he 
had done any harm. He then took refuge behind a 
rock and sulked for half an hour, I being perfectly will- 
ing to have him do so until I could get my second wind. 
It took a good deal of stoning and one pike-pole to get 
him going again, but at last, after as arduous an hour 
and a half as I ever spent, during which the fish had 
jumped nine times and fought with unsurpassable reso- 
lution and intelligence, he was induced to come within 
ten yards of me, where I held him, his fins erect and his 
mouth open, while Peter with many a caution went just 
below to gaff him. When he got in position I easeil up 
a little on the reel, and the fish slid down-stream, Peter 
made a dash at him out of reach, and missed; the 
salmon made one last effort, parted the frayed gut, rolled 
over utterly exhausted, and disappeared. Mowat saw 
him that evening lying by a large stone’at the edge of 
the rapid, just moving his fins, and with about a yard 
of my leader hanging out of his mouth. So seveVe were 
the rushes of this fish that I found the brass ring at the 
end of my rod-tip cut so nearly through hj' the friction 
of the line; that I was afraid to use it again. 
I sincerely hope that salmon lived and will populate 
the Restigouche with his kind, for a nobler and gamer 
one never swam. Mowat thought he would weigh 
above forty pounds, the Indians over fifty, and I at least 
sixty. I don’t think I had hold of so large a salmon as 
this again, though the next ^Monday 1 lost two leaders 
with heavy fish I did not see, which started uj) stream 
instead of down as soon as hooked, and could not be 
checked. 
Our last day’s fishing was iMonday, July IB, when in 
the morning and from one pool, the Upsahiuitch, Haines 
and I killed eleven .salmon and one grilse. By a series 
of misfortunes we lost between us on that morning 
twelve flsn. They had had a rest over Sunday and were 
just in the humor to take. For three hours we w-ere 
neither of us five minutes without being fast to a fish, 
and not infrequently would get a rise to the first cast. 
The heaviest I killed weighed twenty-nine pounds, and 
rose five times before I hooked him, a very unusual 
thing, as generally after two, or rarely three misses a 
salmon gives up in disgust and nothing can be done 
with him. The score of that day’s task from the pool 
may be interesting, and here it is : 29 pounds, 12^, 10^, 
9i, 24, 10, 10, l.oi^, 154, 12, 27 ; and the grilse 3 pounds. 
Four of these were killed with a fly of my own tying, 
my first attempt, which shows that the fish were not at 
all p;yticular as to what they jumped at. The next 
morning we struck our tent, loaded our canoe.s and raft, 
and started homeward. Reaching Metapedia we stopped 
there to bid our friends farewell, and came near con- 
verting the most active one into an enemy by offering to 
pay ilitchell for a portion of tliM serxdce he bad done us. 
The General skilfully smothered ^Mitchell’s wrath l)y 
volunteering to let him harness his team and drive him 
to Dalhousie, thirty-five miles, which satisfied Mitchell 
completely. Haines and I went to Campbelton — half- 
way, in our canoes. There we dined, and dismissed and 
paid oft' our Indians, with whom we felt really sorry to 
part. Before we left, however, four of them had con- 
verted enough of their money into whisky to make 
them dead drunk, and the other two were following 
their example as fast as they could. Under the wise 
administration of the Dominion Government the salmon 
fisheries are become (piite profitable to it and to the large 
number of men engaged in them. About five years 
since a system of protection was inaugurated and rigidly 
enforced. Fishing during the spawning sea.son was put 
a stop to, spearing at any time was prohibited, the num- 
ber and use of nets in the tideways were restricted, and 
channels were marked out which were to be kept open 
at all times. Many of the rivers were leased, reserving 
to those living ui)on them the right to rod-fishing, and 
making the lessees see that the regulations were ob- 
served. On the Restigouche, where the law has been 
enforced by .John Mowat and his subordinates without 
fear or favor, the result has been most successful. Four 
years ago, with more nets at the mouth of the river 
than there are now, the channel was closed by them so 
completely that a rod fisherman above was lucky if he 
killed one or two salmon in a day ; and the total take 
from the nets averaged little over two hundred fish per 
day. Last year the daily catch during the season aver- 
aged, I think, four thousand, certainly over three thou- 
sand, and the river was lull of fish. Mr. Fleming told 
me that in one large pool high up the river, where the 
water was low and every fish could be seen, he made a 
careful estimate of the salmon, and found there were 
over three thousand. The other rivers on the Bay of 
Chaleurs are improving in the same way, and yielding a 
rich return for the sensible and determined course pur- 
sued in their management. 
W e have many rivers in the Eastern States which, 
with equal care, could be made equally productive of 
this finest of fish. The Connecticut, and Androscoggin, 
the Penobscot, and others, might at a small cost be filled 
with salmon, and made to furnish a cheap and abundant 
supply of food as nutritious, pound for pound, as beef, 
if our legislators could be brought to force their free- 
born constituents to the belief that they have not an in- 
defeasible right to net, spear or poison any fish that 
ventures into their waters at any season. I .suppose the 
introduction and enforcement of the Canadian fishery 
regulations here would almost create a revolution, but 
we can never have salmon without a strict system of 
protection. 
At Dalhousie our trip virtuall}" ended, and until we 
parted at Albany its pleasures formed the chief topic of 
our discourse. We concluded that salmon-fishing was 
far ahead of any sport we knew aboqt, and needed but 
one improvement to make it perfect ; and that in the 
way in which the fly is taken. In most siccounts of 
salmon-fishing we read about the fly being droi)ped 
“like a snow-flake,” or something of the kind, just over 
the fish, and he darting at it, on the surface of the water, 
like a large trout. Of all the salmon I saw killed, and 
in all I heard of from exi)erienced fishermen, not one 
was known to do this. They always take the fly front- 
two inches to a foot under water ; often their rise can- 
not be seen at all, and generally the only visible indica 
tion is a slight swirl in the water. If a fisherman knows 
just where a salmon is lying he commences casting 
above and to the right or left of him, by degrees letting 
the fly float down toward him under water. 1 have 
never seen a salmon ri.se at a fly the instant it touched 
water, iis trout olten do, and consequently so much skill 
in easting is not necessary, though late in the season, 
when the water is low and clear, one should be able to 
put out twenty-five or thirty yards of line. 
After a fresh-run salmon has taken the fly, hedi.sarms 
all criticism on his previous conduct, and hard to i)lea.se 
must be the man who does not consider the si)ort he 
then affords ample comi)ensalion for any amount of long 
journeying and hard fare it takes to procure it. — Dmn. 
Huge. 
