Canada To-day and To-morrowCopping, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward)
History
Canada To-day and To-morrow
Copping, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward)
Canada
The remarkable results secured by the old lady—to revert to the
personal metaphor—are due to a comprehensive thoroughness of effort.
Her luggers go in fleets to all the sandbanks—their trawls search each
estuary that is likely to harbour a pair of soles or a pint of shrimps.
At low tide the old lady examines her mud shores for every wet and
glistening periwinkle.
The daughter is not in a position to do that. Her staff of helpers is
wholly inadequate to cope with all the occupations and opportunities
that crowd upon her. With so many fisheries available, the only ones
that get attended to are those that shout for notice. The fish would not
get caught unless they practically insisted upon it. British Columbia
salmon assemble in such myriads in certain of the rivers that their
protruding backs, at times, make a dense mat of fish from shore to
shore, almost hiding the water. That statement may look like an
exaggeration to the Englishman accustomed to angle all day and secure,
peradventure, a couple of small roach as the reward of his patient
industry. But the statement describes an actual, familiar sight; and,
indeed, the natural resources of Canada scarcely lend themselves to
exaggeration. Again and again I have seen and heard those natural
resources not over-stated, but ludicrously under-stated. The mistake is
constantly made, if quite unintentionally, by Canadians themselves.
Let me give another instance of a Canadian fish that assembles in force,
refusing to be overlooked. I refer to the humble herring. “In 1903”—to
quote unimpeachable testimony—“the run of herring was very large. At
Nanaimo the fish invaded the harbour in such numbers that thousands were
washed up on the beach, like seaweed, by the waves created by passing
steamers.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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