DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

51
NUISANCES.
The action of your Department towards enforcing the Act against the throwing
of sawdust and mill rubbish in the streams, by which the waters are polluted so that
fish abandon them, is universally commended except in the case of a few mill owners
who imagine they should enjoy liberties not constant with the general public interest.
That sawdust and other mill refuse causes fish to depart from streams affected by it,
is an old time established fact, which requires some courage to gainsay. Sappsing
it did not render the waters repulsive to fish, yet it finds a resting place in the pools
of the streams, which are the resting and hiding places of the fish; but when these
pools are nearly filled with refuse, the fish are compelled to seek other and unencumbered
streams.
OPEN SEA FISUING.
It is a matter for regret that capital in Cape Breton does not, to any appreciable
extent, seek investment in the deep sea fisheries, by the construction of decked craft
of a size adapted to the purpose. A numerous population is already dependent on
the shore fisheries and from the absence of vessels adapted to prosecute the bank
fisheries, large numbers of Cape Breton's active young men seek abroad that employ..
ment which lies at their doors, and thus give to foreigners the benefit of their skill
and experince as well as the profits arising from their labor. These foreigners are
careless of the lives of their employés, and every year adds new names to the death
list of those of our brave young men who go down to watery graves in the Atlantic.
Any measure of encouragement, in addition to the present bounty allowance,
that would tend to induce an investment of capital, in conjunction with the skill of
our fishermen, with a view to enter more largely into the production of decked vessels
for the deep sea fisheries, would confer an incalculable boon onthe fishery interests
of this island.
FIShERY PROTECTION.
The efficient protection given by the Government cruisers is of an incalculable
benefit in promoting the interests and sustaining the rights of our shore fishermen,
against the incursions of hordes of foreign vessels hovering on the coasts and is duly
appreciated by resident fishermen. This protection and enforcement of treaty obligations
is of special benefit to the Island of Cape Breton, perhaps more than to any
other section of the provinces, from the fact that it excludes foreigners from the extensive
and invaluable inland fisheries of the Great Bras d'Or Lakes and their
numerous bays.
EOUNTY.
The bounty of fishermen as well as the placing of fishing supplies on the list of
articles free of duty, are valuable concessions, and so prized by our harly sons of the
deep. The bounty continues to lend a strong impetus to their exertions as it is made
a matter of honor not to fall below the requisite standard for securing the bounty.
This honorable competition is particularly noticeable amongst younger men.
PROSPECTIVE OF TIlE FItIIIERIES.
With the combined protection afforded by the exclusion of foreigners from the
bay fisheries and the addition of well observed close seasons, judiciously adapted to
the local circumstances of the Island, and the suppression of seine, trap and trawl
fishing within bays and close upon headlands, a bright future of prosperity is beyond
doubt in store for the fisheries of this Island.
The Government railway in course of construction, by the intersection of the
Island and tapping the Bras d'or waters at numerous points, adds immensely to the
prospective value of the fisheries of these waters 'Ihis magnificent inland sea, with
numerous and large bays, abounds in fish the year turougli, and especially is this