DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

18
coast and in its tidal eddies, the fry find the most favorable condition for the beginning
of their existence.
The cod spawn in the open sea; the ova floating at or near the surface until the
fry is hatched but they follow the anadromous and other fishes to the shore, feeding
on them; therefore anything which tends to diminish the supply of small fish near
the shore injures the cod fishing.
The absolute inter.dependenee existing in nature is beautifully illustrated among
the fishes, you cannot injure or destroy o;e fishery without affecting another, and
thus we see the injury to our anadromous fishes reacting on the cod.
The cod prey on the young of the alewife, salmon, trout, &c., all anadrotnous
fish, but, perhaps, the most important of these as a bait, to bring the cod to the shore
was the alewife, and the almost fabulous numbers of these fih which used to throng
the estuaries of all the creeks and rivers of Nova Scotia, to ascend them to spawn,
and then the young fry return to salt water in countless millions, brought and kept
the cod to the shore. This vast mass of anadromous bait no longer exists, and we
find the cod off shore.
In New England the destruction of anadromous fishes is complete, and from Cape
Cod to the boundary line, along a coast which once swarmed with cod, the boat fishing
is practically nil.
In Canada the process of injury has been slower, but always tending in the same
direction. In the neighboring states public opinion has but recently awakened to
the national loss they have sustained, through the lack of uniform fishery laws in
the different states, and through the lax administration of those which existed; whereby
the fisheries were exposed, both to the uncontrolled rapacity of the fishermen and
to the exigencies of manufacturing industries.
The sources of injury to our anadromous fishes are, first, the blocking of our
streams by mill dams; second, the deposit in the streams of masses of sawdust and
other mill refuse, or the defilement thereof by refuse from inanufactories; third, the
complete change in the physical condition of our rivers, arising from the deforesting
and settlement of the country.
in regard to the first of these, no defence can be offered for the continuance of an
obstruction in a river; fishways and ladders should form an essential part of every
dam, and these fishways should, when constructed, be inspected, to insure that they
are so arranged that the manufacturer or miller cannot close them when he fears a
shortage of water, and that the upper ends cannot dry out.
In regard to the second it has been held by some people that the presence of
large quantities of decaying sawdust in the streams is not injurious to the fish, because
it is on y decaying vegetable matttr, of which there would always have been a quantity
prelsent in the natural state of the river, before the settlement of the country
owing to the deposit of dead leaves, wood, &e.
That sawdust is most seriously injurioua to fish life in a river must, I think, be
the conclusion to which every unprejudiced person,who has examined into or thought
on the subject, will arrive. The fish go up the rivers to spawn, and the healthy development
of the young fry requires light, as well as suitable temperature. The
transparency therefore of the water is a very important element; water which is
fouled by sawdust is rarely clear and is therefore prejudicial ;. again the spots chosen
by the fih,at which to lie on the bottom and emit the ova, are generally those clear
gravelly spots in eddies just below rapids, and those are the very sputa on which the
sawdust accumulates, and the bottom is no longer clear sand or gravel, but a foul
mass of decomposing vegetable matter, capable, if present in sufficient quantities of
generating heat enough to emit gas. The fish are thus deprived of the most appropriate
spots which they occupied for the purposes of reproduction; and, further, sup.
posing that under nil ttiese unfavorable circumstances a small proportion of weakly
try have struggled into existence, the waters are so charged with decaying vegetable
matter that the existence of the already weakly fry is still further imperilled.
Third. The clearing away of the forest and the conversion of the land to
groulture, have greatly altered the capacity of the country for the retention of