Lost Land of Moses

Moses Perley, a lawyer with the gift of contagious enthusiasm, was the first promoter of salmon angling in New Brunswick. In the early 1840s, he dangled sporting adventure of unimagined richness before the eyes of young men "blessed with youth, health, and an ardent temperament," The British and American anglers who rose to Perley's challenge formed the vanguard of progress. Steamships and coach roads brought them directly to the rivers, and, by 1876, the Intercolonial Railway delivered anglers almost to the edge of the salmon pools. The Governor General of Canada, the Marquess of Lorne, spent two weeks on the Restigouche with the irrepressible Princess Louise and their vice-regal retinue, fly-fishing by day, and by night reposing in carpeted tents. Moses Perley didn't foresee the results of luring anglers to New Brunswick's teeming rivers. Before 1890, his romantic wilderness dream had metamorphosed into the reality of leased waters and elaborate permanent camps for the wealthy few, and the reduction of the native guides from respected companions to servants. In Lost Land of Moses, Peter Thomas illuminates Perley's mixed legacy.