460 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 22, 1906. 
Long stretches of coastline report only meagre 
returns for hook and line fishermen, while traps 
have done scarcely anything. In some instances, ' 
it is true, conditions are not as bad as those 
above described, or there would be consternation 
indeed, but on the whole the season has been an 
adverse one. Bait has been scarce and no re¬ 
frigerators have been supplied save in one or 
two places, so that this lack adds to the draw¬ 
backs of the situation. 
I don’t know what use the Newfoundland 
fishermen would make of frozen bait if they had 
it, but I do know that many of the Canadian 
ones refuse to make use of the opportunities 
afforded them by the Government for obtaining 
it when fish are plentiful and other bait is scarce. 
While I was salmon fishing at the Natashquan 
last July there was abundance of codfish off the 
mouth of the river, but the fishermen were unable 
to profit by it because of the scarcity of fresh 
bait. The same thing occurs quite frequently all 
along the coast. 
Fish Protection in Ontario. 
The Ontario Fish and Game Protective Asso¬ 
ciation is doing a noble work in endeavoring to 
save the rapidly disappearing food fishes in the 
waters of the province. How necessary this work 
had become may be judged from the very alarm¬ 
ing statements made before a recent meeting of 
the Association by the Chief Justice of Ontario. 
Judge Falconbridge declared that “Ontario fisher¬ 
ies have undoubtedly been conducted, not for the 
good of the masses of the people, but rather for 
the benefit of the commercial fishermen who carry 
on this industry. The several royal commissions, 
which have been appointed by both Dominion and 
Provincial governments, have reported in no un¬ 
certain terms as to the rapid depletion of the 
waters of our great lakes, and that unless changes 
were soon made, the fisheries would in a com¬ 
paratively small number of years become use¬ 
less.’' 
It was intimated, too, that the politicians of 
both parties have for the most part truckled to 
the votes of the commercial fishermen. 
The tocsin of cheap fish for the people, now 
being sounded by the Association, is being very 
generally taken up also by the leading news¬ 
papers of Toronto, and there is every indication 
that a very healthy public sentiment is being 
aroused on the subject. While the idea was 
abroad that the Association, in its work, was 
simply aiming at the better sport of the supposed 
privileged class known as sportsmen, there was 
no public echo of their cry of alarm. Now, how¬ 
ever, that the agitation is not in the interest of 
a privileged class at all, but against the small 
privileged class of commercial fishermen, and in 
favor of cheaper fish for the people, there is a 
prompt and very general response. One of the 
most important of the Association’s recommenda¬ 
tions is that the catching of all food fish for ex¬ 
port be totally prohibited for five years. 
For the success attained, and prominent posi¬ 
tion occupied by the Association, credit is almost 
entirely due to Mr. A. Kelly of Toronto, the 
general secretary, who has devoted himself to its 
interests with remarkable zeal and assiduity. 
Dynamiting Fish in the St. Lawrence. 
The necessity for the existence and support of 
just such an association is forcibly illustrated by 
the recent cases of dynamiting fish in the St. 
Lawrence, publicly reported. Chief Justice Fal¬ 
conbridge called the Association’s attention to 
a dispatch in the newspapers saying that pirates 
were using dynamite in the waters of the St. 
Lawrence near Brockville. When he read that 
one pirate, after discharging a stick of dynamite, 
was seen to gather in two maskinonge, one sixty- 
one and the other twenty-eight pounds, it made 
his blood boil. “Had I used the language which 
I might have felt justified in using,” he said, “it 
would have been neither parliamentary nor 
judicial. I might, with all reverence in such a 
case, quote the words, ‘It is not meet that the 
children’s bread should be cast to the dogs,’ ” he 
added. 
Netting in Nissisquoi Bay. 
While it is extremely gratifying to know that 
the Missisquoi Bay netting affair is to be included 
in the consideration of the various fishery mat¬ 
ters in dispute between Canada and the LInited 
States, by an international fisheries commission, 
1 am not without hope that the matter will shortly 
be decided without reference to federal- authority 
at all, and by the simple refusal of the Provincial 
Minister of Fisheries to issue any more permits 
or licenses for netting pike-perch in the Canadian 
waters of Missisquoi Bay. It will be remem¬ 
bered that after receiving the representations of 
the North American Fish and Game Protective 
Association on this subject, the Hon. Mr. Pre- 
fontaine, the late Dominion Minister of Fisheries, 
stated that he was with the Association in the 
matter, but would like to have his hands strength¬ 
ened by a request to the same effect from the 
Federal Government of the Lbiited States. The 
request was duly made by President Roosevelt 
through the Secretary of State, ■ but it did not 
meet the approval of Sir Wilfred Laurier, who 
asked to have the whole fishing controversy 
settled together, the Missisquoi Bay affair in¬ 
cluded, because of the unsatisfactory fishing con¬ 
ditions on the Great Lakes and Puget Sound. 
The Secretary of State has now notified Senator 
Proctor, according to a letter quoted in the newly 
issued report of the Vermont Fish and Game 
Commissioner, Hon. H. G. Thomas, that the ques¬ 
tion has been so considered, and that the waters 
of Lake Champlain are specifically mentioned 
among those to which (under Article IV. of a 
draft convention for the protection of food fishes 
which has been submitted to the British Ambas¬ 
sador), the regulations to be drafted by an in¬ 
ternational fisheries commission, shall be applied. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
Newfoundland Salmon. 
Mr. L. O. Crane’s strictures under the above 
heading in Forest and Stream of Sept. 1. at 
the first blush, rather alarmed me; but when 1 
had read his article carefully, the conclusions I 
arrived at, were that Mr. Crane is evidently an 
enthusiastic angler of the right sort; that he 
reads his Forest and Stream religiously, as all 
nature lovers ought;.that even on his own show¬ 
ing, I had not exaggerated much, and finally, 
that he is a convert of mine to the creed I started 
out to propagate some years ago through the 
columns of Forest and Stream, that the ang¬ 
ling in Newfoundland and Labrador, to use his 
words, is “the best in the world.” 
He criticises my statement as to the number 
and weight of fish taken by Lady Sybil Grey 
and Lord .Howick, admitting they were rather 
late for the best fishing, but states on the author¬ 
ity of a man who was with them, “that they got 
just eighty-nine grilse and nine salmon in all in 
two weeks.” We’ll let it go at that. Even that 
is not bad fishing, and if Mr. Crane and Lady 
Sybil and Lord Howick are not satisfied with 
that, they must be hard to be pleased. 
He waxes justly indignant at the tale of a cer¬ 
tain Scotch “sport,” who killed over 300 salmon 
and left them to rot on the bank. I am one with 
him in his denunciation of such a hog. I re¬ 
peat for Mr. Crane’s benefit and for that of 
other American anglers, a bit of information 
I had at first hand that may be useful for a 
future season: When Inspector O’Rielly visited 
the place to investigate the charge, he found 
that there were more than 300 salmon left to 
rot; he also found (and I want anglers to note 
this) that the pools were literally alive with 
salmon. He caught all he wanted in a short 
time, and stopped fishing when he had caught 
five or six fish. He could have caught five or 
six tierces of salmon if he wanted them, as the 
fish had not apparently been disturbed for years, 
and were siniply “crazy for the fly.” The name 
of this angler’s paradise is Little River, in the 
district of Burgeo. Its entrance is a small 
chasm in the cliffs and it runs in for miles, and 
is so narrow that an angler could almost drop 
his fly on the precipice on either side, from the 
steamer’s deck. It is seldom visited, and is only 
a few hours’ run from Port au Basque; the 
scenery is so grand and rugged that it would 
repay a visit, even if one only got about 150 
salmon, and took them away with him. 
Mr. Crane goes on to say that the report that 
on a certain date at the South Branch, forty 
salmon and ten grilse were taken is “absurd.” 
Now this is the first time I disagree with Mr. 
Crane. This report may be untrue, but it is 
not absurd. In substantiation of his position, 
he quotes the record of “two rods camping there 
two weeks at the right time; one had nine sal¬ 
mon and five grilse, and the other had eight 
salmon and three grilse.” These two anglers 
may have been fishermen of the right breed 
and not count fishermen, .or hogs. They may 
have been communing with nature, or stowing 
away ozone, or they may have been simple 
“woodsers” who got as much from looking at 
the fish as in catching them. Anyhow, I would 
not take their record as the standard of the 
South Branch; they are evidently not the kind 
to establish records of that sort. I like to know 
what our Scotch friend’s record would have 
been, had he been camped on the South Branch 
for two weeks. Any account of a very large 
catch of fish in Newfoundland may be exag¬ 
gerated, but not absurd, as the fish are so plenti¬ 
ful, that a record may run from 3 to 300. It is 
only a question of the man, time and place. 
I agree with Mr. Crane in what he says of 
the Humber, as to its beauty. The salmon must 
have been plentiful there when he sometimes 
saw six at a time, jumping the falls. He had 
only fairly good sport here, because the con¬ 
ditions were bad. Well, that is the fisherman’s 
luck. General Bashwood' struck the same river 
three years ago, and the conditions must have 
been all right, for he captured over 300 salmon 
for his own rod and saved them and presented 
them to his guides. Mr. W. R. Warren, Solic¬ 
itor St. Johns, and two other gentlemen, were 
there last season, and got seventy-seven sal¬ 
mon in two or three days, and lost as many 
more nearly. Mr. Crane reports a Mr. Hogan 
as getting a 30-pounder and Mr. Pfeiffer, of 
Philadelphia, for a 23-pounder. He also re¬ 
ports catches of salmon from 10 to 17 pounds 
and lots of trout up to 4 pounds. I agree with 
him that this is good fishing. 
And now comes the crux of the whole article. 
Mr. Crane cannot swallow the report that one 
man took sixty salmon in one day. Here is the 
item as I culled it from a local paper: “Mr. 
Conrad, of Halifax, reports that a few days 
ago an American angler on the West Coast 
made a record between daylight and dark by 
catching sixty salmon, ranging from 10 to 12 
pounds.” 
I may say right here that I gave the item for 
what it was worth. It may or may not be an 
exaggeration. I did not trouble to verify it; 
but if Mr. Crane is anxious to know the truth, 
I’ll make the necessary inquiries. But the re¬ 
sult will not be known for some time, as I go 
to-morrow with the Supreme Court on circuit, 
and will be absent for about three weeks. 
I do not assume any responsibility for the 
clippings and reports that I send. I take them 
and send them for what they are worth. They 
are the usual reports that come in daily from 
the various angler’s resorts, and are published 
in the local papers. They interest me, and I 
imagine they interest others. I have no interest 
whatever in deceiving anglers, and no state¬ 
ment made by me in Forest and Stream 
has ever been questioned. Mr. Crane does not 
question my veracity, and I am sure he'll take 
Mr. Conrad’s statement (not mine) as I take 
it. as an interesting item for stay-at-home 
anglers. With Mr. Crane, I regret “that salmon 
do not run the year around, and that I do not 
live on the river.” 
It comes like a dream to me, that I read in 
Forest and Stream, not many moons ago, the 
yearning of another angler, who was apostro¬ 
phizing the Humber. Like Mr. Crane, he waxed 
enthusiastic; but like Mr. Silas Wegg, he burst 
into poetry, and warbled thusly: 
Were it given me my fate to shape, ere nearing life’s 
release, 
On thy pleasant slopes, fair Humber, my abiding place 
I’d set; 
And in Nature’s sweet communion I would seek content 
and peace, 
By all the world forgotten, I would all the world forget. 
W. I. Carroll. 
