the early Massachusetts governors, in which he reproaches himself
for indulging in "fowling," the rather because, as he confesses, he
failed to get any game. These two bold Bostonians were wont to go to
Scotland for salmon-fishing, having a belief that the salmon of the
American rivers were too uncultivated in their taste to rise at a fly.
However this may have been in 1820, the salmon of the Dominion are
to-day as open to the attractions of a well-tied combination of feathers
and pig's-wool, as those of the rivers of Norway or Scotland; and as,
under the protection which the Canadian rivers now enjoy, the fish are
becoming plentiful, sport is offered in the numerous streams which flow
into the St. Lawrence, the Bays of Chaleur and Miramichi, and the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, probably superior to any now to be found elsewhere.

Having last year paid a visit to one of these beautiful rivers, I
propose to give an account of my introduction to the art and mystery of
salmon-fishing, to the end that other anglers, whose exploits have
hitherto been confined to the capture of a pound trout or a four-pound
pickerel, may know the joy of feeling the rush of a twenty-pound salmon
fresh run from the sea--the most brilliant, active and vigorous of the
finny tribes, the king of the river, using the term in its original
sense--the strongest, the ablest, the most cunning. A late writer on
English field-sports says: "I assert that there is no single moment with
horse or gun into which is concentrated such a thrill of hope, fear,
expectation and exultation as that of the rise and successful striking
of a heavy salmon."

And first, let me say something of the system of protection to these
fisheries adopted by the Canadian government, which renders this sport
possible. Finding that under the constant slaughter of salmon and trout,
by the Indians with spears and by the whites with nets, the fish were
becoming not only scarce, but in danger of extinction, the government
interfered, and a few years ago passed laws the effects of which are
already apparent. Certainly, a paternal government is sometimes a good
thing. On our side the line a ring of wealthy men, with a large capital
in nets, seines, pounds, etc., will, as has been seen in Rhode Island,
depopulate a coast in a few years of its food-fishes, leaving nothing
for increase; and when the poor fishermen, whose living depends on these
free gifts of God, ask for protection from the legislatur