(_To the Editor_.)
It may be entertaining to many of your readers now that emigration
occupies the thoughts of so many, to sketch a short account of the method
chiefly employed in Canada, in capturing fish, which to very many settlers
is an important adjunct to their domestic economy. Those living on the
borders of the numerous lakes and rivers of Canada, which are invariably
stored with fine fish, are provided with either a light boat, log, or what
is by far the best, a bark canoe; a barbed fishing spear, with light
tapering shaft, about twelve or sixteen feet long, and an iron basket for
holding pine knots, and capable of being suspended at the head of the boat
when fired. In the calm evenings after dusk, many of these lights are seen
stealing out from the woody bays in the lakes, towards the best fishing
grounds, and two or three canoes together, with the reflection of the red
light from the clear green water on the bronzed faces of either the native
Indian, or the almost as wild Backwoodsman, compose an extraordinary scene:
the silence of the night is undisturbed, save by the gurgling noise of the
paddles, as guided by the point of the spear; the canoe whirls on its axis
with an almost dizzing velocity, or the sudden dash of the spear, followed
by the struggles of the transfixed fish, or perhaps the characteristic
"Eh," from the Indian steersman. In this manner, sometimes fifty or sixty
fish of three or four pounds are speared in the course of a night,
consisting of black bass, white fish, and sometimes a noble maskimongi. A
little practice soon enables the young settler to take an active part in
this pursuit. The light seems to attract the fish, as round it they
thickly congregate. But few fish are caught in this country by the fly: at
some seasons, however, the black bass will rise to it. A CANADIAN.
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