|
A rising New Brunswick middle class takes to the
river, lake and forest on summer vacations and weekends.
 uring the third quarter
of the nineteenth century a new class of homegrown fishing
enthusiasts began to travel to nearby lakes or faraway rivers to
spend some of their hard earned leisure time. Lawyers, doctors and
civic officials took horse and wagon, ferries, steamboats and,
from the 1860s, the railway to their destinations.
|
|
"The Shamrock",
locomotive no. 4 for the New Brunswick and Canada Railway, about
1870, from a tintype
(New Brunswick Museum, 10560)
|
|
More remote locations still demanded the birchbark canoe and the
portage, often welcomed by a hardy brand of tourist enjoying the
beauties of their home province. One index of the growth of this
in-province tourism lies with the advent of a New Brunswick fishing
tackle industry represented by such makers as Dingee Scribner,
Joseph Dalzell and Charles Baillie, all of Saint John.
|
|
Fisherman and guide on the Nepisiquit
River (detail),
about 1875, from a stereograph. A Saint John businessman, John
Nicholson, held a sizeable lease on this river at the time.
(New Brunswick Museum, 4449)
|
|
|
Three piece salmon rod,
greenheart wood, inscribed "D. Scribner" on butt, trade-mark on
wood holder, "D. Scribner & Son, Makers, St. John, N.B", with linen
bag
Photo: Steven Darby
(The American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont, 67-4.1)
|
|
