714 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. ii, 1911. 
Nova Scotia Fishing and Hunting. 
Annapolis Royal, N. S., Nov. i. —Editor 
borcst and Stream: A resume of the season in 
this Province may be in place as a record. 
Salmon Fishing.—It was an average salmon 
year, which is not saying much in Nova Scotia. 
The runs are very irregular, and it is on.y 
“Johnny on the spot’’ who, as a general rule, 
kills the most fish. The Port Medway, St. 
Mary’s and other streams have done fairly well, 
“considerin’.” 
Trout Fishing.—From early spring to the end 
of the open season it has been the worst trout- 
ing that I ha've seen in ten years. In general it 
may be said that the fishing has become steadily 
poorer in that time. The reasons are not far to 
seek. Only 90,000 trout fry were put into our 
waters in one season; that was the last pub¬ 
lished report. That means almost nothing. There 
is practically no protection against poaching, tak¬ 
ing too many fish or po.luting streams. The only 
fisheries officers in evidence on the inland waters 
are those who get a rake-off for seliing licenses 
to foreigners. An exception may be made in 
Yarmouth county, where they had sufficient 
political pull to get an extra warden for the 
Tusket River. Only in two or three vicinities 
are these licenses sold. At Annapolis nobody 
knows now who the fisheries Officer is who is 
entitled to sell licenses. This unfair manner of 
administrating the law, by which all who go 
fishing except in Yarmouth county and a few 
other places, may fish free, is causing much dis¬ 
satisfaction, and justly so. Last spring three 
cans of trout fry came to this town. Two of 
them went into a small pond controlled by a 
friend of the member of Parliament of the 
county and will do nobody else any good. The 
third alone went to stock the Liverpool water 
system, the greatest in the Province. This is 
characteristic. Politics, as many prominent Nova 
Scotians have told me, is the curse of this Prov¬ 
ince. The Conservatives who-, after a campaign 
of slander against the intentions of America, 
have turned out the old party, now promise to 
boom things in the fishing line, starting with the 
building of a new hatchery in the western part 
of the Province. We shall see what we shall 
see. Meanwhile you may catch trout out of sea¬ 
son, or offend against all the fisheries laws at 
once in trout waters, and no man will say you 
nay. Is there any wonder that the fishing is 
getting poorer? In addition, the lumbermen are 
doing their best to denude the country of trees, 
and the result helps to kill the fishing. The 
lumbering, all I have seen, is done in the most 
slipshod, unscientific manner, the tops being left 
where they fall, nothing cleared, every tree that 
is any good taken. A tract of country after a 
band of Nova Scotia lumbermen have finished 
with it would make the gods weep. I understand 
there are exceptions, but in ten years I have 
seen none. 
Moose Hunting.—The season lasts until the 
16th of this month, but it is late enough to see 
that there are plenty of moose, and that, in 
spite of the wretched weatner during most of 
the ' calling” season, quite as many bulls will be 
k.lied this year as last, and probably more. In 
the West, Americans have been especially suc¬ 
cessful, killing more than three times as man;y 
as last autumn. On the other hand, the heads 
have been small and poor by comparison. I have 
never seen so many miserable heads brought out. 
No doubt that is just luck. The three years’ pro¬ 
tection of cow moose runs out this year, and 
next spring the Legislature will be called upon 
to prolong the protection of the cows or allow 
them to be killed, probably the former. There 
is little chance of the season opening later than 
the middle of September, because the only 
revenue got from game here is taken in the big- 
game licenses sold to non-residents, and these 
nearly ail come in September, that season being 
more convenient for them. If we had a resi¬ 
dents’ license of $2 each, or even $1, it would be 
dfferent, but in this Province those who yell 
loudest for adequate game protection are the 
ones who absolutely refuse to go down into their 
jeans for even that miserable sum. They are 
wont to cry, “Nova Scotia game for Nova Sco¬ 
tians,” but want the Yankees to pay all the costs. 
Whether the present Provincial Government will 
have the courage to introduce a $1 residents’ 
license, is a question, though they could now do 
it, for they have just been returned to power 
for (last year) five years. The present chief 
game commissioner undoubted y does his best, 
but some odd things are done, showing the force 
of local politics. For example, a new warden 
has just been appointed at the important sport¬ 
ing center of Milford, this county. The place 
is full of guides and others eminently suitable 
for the office, but it was given to the one man 
in all the country round who knows and cares 
least about shooting; in fact, the only man who 
was never known to take a gun in his hand. 
Why ? Well, the fact is that he is the only 
eligible Liberal in the village, all the others, in¬ 
cluding the guides, being Conservatives. It will 
be said that this man was appointed because he 
was postmaster. Take your choice. For one 
who knows the Province there is none. The 
Nova Scotians are like the Germans; when two 
come together there are always three opinions. 
In other words, they are always squabbling, and 
it does game and fish conditions no good. 
Partridges.—Last year grouse were very plen¬ 
tiful. This spring the breeding time was mild 
and the result is that I have never seen or heard 
of so many birds in my life. The season lasts 
but the month of October, and the country round 
echoes with the reports of guns; result, at the 
village stores partridges sell for twenty-five cen's 
a brace, and only a little more here in the larger 
towns; in fact, at the height of the season peo¬ 
ple got sick of them, and the local dealers re¬ 
fused to buy them of the countrymen who, per¬ 
haps for the first time in their lives, had to eat 
the birds themselves. It is high time that the 
sale of birds and moose meat was stopped, but 
the Government does not dare to offend the 
farmers to that extent. Dogs are little help in 
hunting partridges here, for the birds will not 
stand, but run away and get up out of range. 
At first, while the birds are not wild, many pot 
shots of the standing variety can be had, or 
while they are getting ready to run or fly. Later 
it is harder to slaughter them in such unsports¬ 
manlike fashion, and then partridge shooting is 
the “sportiest proposition” one could imagine. 
To put up your birds yourself, without a dog, 
and kill one in three is a big thing. Anybody 
who knows the explosive rising of a partridge 
and his mile a minute gait when once in full 
flight, especially, too, his talent for getting be¬ 
hind cover, will agree with this dictum. 
Woodcock.—Plenty of them here, with a good 
dog, which you must bring with you, as dogs 
are scarce. The native knows little about wood¬ 
cock, and practically never shoots one. Some 
of the oldest inhabitants think you mean wood¬ 
pecker when you ask about the bird; fact, 
though often told before. It costs an American 
$30 to shoot woodcock in Nova Scotia, the same 
as for moose. Why? Because a few Halifax 
gunners want to hog it for themselves. They 
claim it was done in self-defense, because the 
New Brunswick men came across the border and 
killed all the Nova Scotia woodcock, while the 
Nova Scotian men could not retaliate on account 
of the higher license. For that reason it costs 
even a Bluenose $5 to shoot woodcock out of 
his own county. A pity, for many Americans 
would come and enjoy the fine woodcock and 
grouse shooting if they did not feel too unjustly 
the unfair license fee. 
What is the outlook? For fishing poor, for 
moose and grouse good. For canoe trips this 
Province is a wonderful region, especially the 
western part. The best place to outfit and start 
for fishing, hunting or canoeing is South Mil¬ 
ford, this county. It connects easily with the 
waters of the Medway, Jordan, Shelburne, Rose¬ 
way and 1 usket rivers, besides the Liverpool 
system, of which it forms the head, including 
the two greatest Nova Scotia lakes, Fairy and 
Rossignol. Edward Breck. 
Work on Boston’s Aquarium. 
Good progress is being made in the building of 
the aquarium in Marine Park, South Boston, says 
the Fishing Gazette. There are to be two^ build¬ 
ings, the aquarium itself, with all its departments, 
tanks, offices, etc. The other will be a great 
cistern, to contain 100,000 gallons of special sea 
water for the tanks in which the fish will swim. 
1 he cistern plan is as follows: Large barges 
and tanks will fill up with water taken from the 
ocean 100 miles out to sea, and this will be 
emptied into the cistern. From the cistern this 
water will be pumped into the exhibition tanks 
and a'so the service tanks. It is believed the 
100000 gallons in the cistern will be a year’s 
supply. 
Learning. 
Tackle dealers claim that they handled more 
fine rods this year than they have in any two 
former years. This means that the hickory pole 
is a thing of the past. Men are learning that 
they catch more fish with a good snappy rod 
than they do with the stiff, heavy pole. The 
finest salt water rods are made from split bam¬ 
boo. These rods are now proving their value in 
surf-casting, being light to handle, and far more 
pliable than lancewood or greenheart.—Newark 
Star. 
