THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 
9 
morants of Gaspe seriously turn their attention to fish of economic 
importance their possibility of damage could be considerable. 
In the vicinity of Gaspe and various other places on the coast 
the salmon ( Salmo salar ) is an economically important fish 
and furnishes livelihood to a large number of the inhabitants. 
The mouths of the salmon-frequented streams are lined 
with their full legal quota of nets which supply the fish to the 
general market, bringing good prices and furnishing business 
and profit to the fisherman, the middleman, the retailer, and 
to the common carriers connecting them. The streams them- 
selves are owned by, or leased to, private individuals and angling 
clubs, and are, therefore, not open to public fishing. The law 
allows only fly fishing upon them, the catch, therefore, is limited 
and cannot be looked upon as an economically important food 
supply. However, the owners of the streams are necessarily 
men or clubs of wealth and distribute considerable money in the 
immediate neighbourhood, besides paying a comparatively high 
rental to the Provincial Government for the privilege. Club 
houses are built, canoes and outfits bought, guardians and war- 
dens salaried throughout the year, and numbers of guides employ- 
ed intermittently during the season. Food supply for members 
has also to be provided on a rather elaborate scale, most of which 
is procured locally, and general service paid for. Added to 
these expenses, the railway fares and expressage necessary to 
transport men and their trophies to and from the ground, and 
the innumerable other ways in which wealth, when on a holiday, 
distributes money totals far beyond the mere food value of the 
fish actually taken in the river and forms an important item 
in the welfare of the community. 
There may be another side to the story, of course. The 
food supplied to society in general may be a mere bagatelle com- 
pared with the effort and money spent in obtaining it and may 
indicate economic waste. However, be this as it may, the 
fact remains that the angling interests are esteemed of extreme 
importance to the local communities about the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence and the possibility of cormorants being harmful to their 
welfare demands careful investigation. 
