"'Jlr-'-^-'-' > '*" «^ -fl^s^ New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. Library 3 1924 050 307 325 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924050307325 SALMON. FISHING IN CANADA And this OUT life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues m trees, hooks m the running brooks, Sermons m stones, and good m everything SALMON-FISHING IN CANADA BY A RESIDENT EDITED Br COLONEL SIR JAMES EDWARD ALEXANDER KNT. K.O.L.S. Uth REGT. AUTHOB OF ' EXPLORATIONS Irr AMERICA, AFRICA, ETC.* WITH ILLUSTRATIONS THE CaaiEEJH^Ul LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1860 LOWDON PRINTED BY SPOTIISTVOODE AND CO. NEW-STEEET SQUARE INSCEIBED TO LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM EOWAN, K.C.B. Colonel ISth Regt. LATELY COMMANDING THE FOECES AND ADaHNISTEATOK OF THE GOYEENMENT OF CANADA ; INTRODUCTION. It is impossible to over-value the provinces of Great Britain tying in North America beyond the Atlantic wave. They have attracted, and will con- tinue to attract, the greatest attention, as the hope and the home of the emigrant. A haven of rest, after honourable toil, will be found there by those who are debarred, by the competition in "the old country," from reahsing thek cherished dreams of independence. The eastern townsliips of Lower Canada will receive and occupy the wanderer Canada west has many modes of emplopng him, its resources are being so rapidly developed by steam and rail. The dark forests of New Brunswick, laced with bright rivers, were not created to be X INTRODUCTION. unsubdued by the hand of man ; and the valuable though neglected island of Cape Breton, a de- pendency of Nova Scotia, "with its great salt lake, the Bras d'Or, is rich m coal, possesses exliaustless fisheries, and a soil capable of supporting large numbers of industrious settlers. The heart of Canada may be reached for 6/., the Maritime Provinces of North America for 4/. ; an advantage which is not shared by our distant though important possessions in South Africa and Austraha. The soldier and the civihan, the merchant and the farmer, m the West may diversify and lighten their duties and then- toils witli the most exciting sport in these vast regions, — the haunts of the bear, the deer, and the fox ; and the fisherman has such a scope for his " gentle art " on the lakes and rivers fi'cquented by the great maskanonge, salmon, bass, Avhite fish, &c., that home-fishing would appear very tame ever after. The careless manner in which some of the greatest boons of the Almighty Creator are treated is evinced ; INTRODUCTION. XI in tlie reckless destruction of tlie valuable salmon family. Some rivers are protected in Britain and America, and the salmon are judiciously used there but it is too often the case that some of the finest sahnon rivers are now abandoned on account of even the gravel of the spawmng beds bemg removed to make walks, whilst poachers destroy fish, lean and un- wholesome at the breeding time ; and weirs, stretch- ing across a river near its mouth, by some old feudal right, and for the benefit of one proprietor, absorb what might be a means of existence and pleasure to hundreds hvhig liigher up the stream. Surely this great abuse camiot contmue. We have hunted, fished, and explored in the British Provhices of North America, and sojourned there for years, and now propose to give some account, mixed up with facetious matter, from the notes of a very experienced hand, of salmon fishing IN Canada ; adding, in an Appendix, cmious informa- tion of various kinds bearing on salmon fishing m oivc North American possessions generally. We may add that the highest degree of enjoyment is to be sai INTRODUCTION. found in a cruise to the salmon grounds on the Lower St. Lawrence, whilst enthusiastic iishermen from England find it well worth their while to go aU the way to the American maritime provinces to " make camp," and cast their lines over the clear waters of the rivers which empty themselves into the Bay of Chaleiu-. J. E. A. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE L INTEODUCTOET AND EGOTISTICAL 1 n. — IS TKEEE SALMON PISHINO IN CANADA? 17 III. TVHAT FLIES ABE SUITED POE CANADA? 39 rV. — HOW AEE TVE TO GET TO THE SALMON EIYEES IN CANADA? . 59 Y. WHICH AEE THE SALMON EIYEES IN CANADA? . .79 VI. — A SUNDAY AT THE SAGIIENAY Ill Til. SALMON FISHINO IN THE SAGTIENAT 141 VIII. — SALMON KSHINa IN THE TEIDUTAHIES OF THE SAGDENAY . 159 IX. — THE ESQUEMAIN 177 X. — THE PETITE BOMAINE, SAULT DE IIOUTON, POET NEUF, AND BEESIMITS 193 XIV CONTENTS. CHAP, PAGE XI. — SHELDBAEE, QOODBOUT, MATANE, AUB METIS . • 209 XII. — TEDniT, PENTECOST, MAEGAfiET 227 XIII. WHAEE FISHING IN THE ST. LATVEENCE, AND WHALE STOEIES . 247 XIV. — SALMON FISHING IN THE MOISIE 277 APPENDIX 287 CHAPTEE I. INTEODUCTOKY AND EGOTISTICAX. ; " Low Tvas onr pretty cot, our tallest rose Peeped at the chamber windo'^' ; "we coiild hear, At silent noon, and ere and early mom. The sea's faint murmur. In the open air Our m}T:tles blossomed, and across the porch Thick jasmines twined. The little landscape round Was green and woody and refreshed the eye It w^as a spot which you might aptly call The Valley of Seclusion." CHAPTEE I. INTKODUCTOET AND EGOTISTICAL. HE reader who takes up this book with the design to peruse the following pages, may be desirous to learn in the first instance with whom he is about to travel, what description of person pretends to publish his experience in the " gentle art," and in what company he is invited to explore the rugged banks and unfrequented pools of the romantic and secluded Canadian rivers. Such a desire is only reasonable, but, no doubt, a short sketch will be deemed suflScient. The lines which are prefixed to this chapter accurately describe, as far as they go, a comfortable but small glebe house, which by the favour of the bishop of the diocese, the writer took possession of at the age of twenty-six, having been for the previous three years cm-ate of a populous and considerable town near the centre of Ireland. This house was situated in a western county, and although 4 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. well sheltered, and surrounded by an ampliitlieatre of moimtains, stood on comparatively high land about the middle of the valley. Its windows commanded an ex- tensive view of a chain of blue and limpid lakes, aboimding in pike and perch, which stretched away towards the foot of the mountains, while partly hidden by intervening trees, was another series of still more beautiful sheets of water, whose shores were well wooded, whose surfaces were inter- spersed with green islands, and whose depths were w^ell stocked wdth most magnificent trout and abundance of silvery roach. The reader will readily come to the conclusion that these lakes, and the streams flowing from them, were not over fished by a superabundant population of sporting gentry, when he is informed that the writer, being not a little proud of his promotion liy a learned prelate, and being moreover under some slight impression that he was n<jt the worst preacher in the diocese, had made rather a careful preparation for his introductory sermon in his new parish, and that when he ascended the pulpit to deliver it, his congregation consisted of two policemen and the squire's coachman. HaviDg mentioned the squire's coachman, it would be wrong to omit all mention of the squire himself. He was a gentleman. He had inherited a dark Spanish appearance from his mother. His understanding had been opened by a university education in which he had distino-uished INTRODUCTORY AlfD EGOTISTICAL. 5 himself, and his manners had been polished by foreign travel and intercourse with the best society. In early life he had run into the usual extravagances and dissipations of young Irishmen who have not to win their way in the world, and by them had been seduced from following the toilsome steps which, with his manners and talents, would have inevitably led to distinction at the bar, to which he had been called. Long before the period of which we write he had been married, and had just returned from a continental tour with his wife, having left their two sons at school in England. He was fond of shooting and an excellent shot, but un- fortunately had no taste for fishing. However, his house was capacious, his demesne beautiful, his hospitality un- bounded, and at his table it was my good fortune to meet two men, who subsequently were closely connected with many of my most interesting fishing experiences — Sir Hugh Dillon Massy of Doonas, and David Blood of Shandangun. The former was the very beau ideal of an Irish baronet of the period, tall, handsome, polished, cheerful, vivacious, passionate and hospitable. The latter was, in every sense of the word, one of the best men and the best fishermen I have ever encountered among all the changes and chances of my eventful life. JMany were the happy days which he and I spent in his Norway praam on the smooth waters of Eossroe, and splendid were the trout, with baskets full of which we used to return, sometimes at eight, B 3 6 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. sometimes at nine o'clock in the eveniDg, to my little glebe, there to enjoy with my wife a late dinner, and kill our fish all over again.