LABRADOR AND GULP OF SAINT LAWRENCE COD FISHERIES. 135 



Comparative table of Newfoundland fishing-ground area. 



Area of fish- 

 ing grounds 

 (geographi- 

 cal square 



miles). 

 Northern Labrador boat fishery Cape Harrison to Cape Mugford, 260 miles, averaging 20 miles deep (among 



islands) 5,200 



Newfoundland boat fishery, French shore Cape St. John, via Cape Banld to Cape Bay, G9G miles, by 3 



miles deep (shore fishery) 2,088 



South shore of Newfoundland boat fishery Cape Race to Cape Bonavista, 294 miles, 3 miles deep (shore 



fishery) 882 



Northeast shore of Newfoundland boat fishery Cape Bonavista to Cape St. John, 225 miles, 3 miles deep 



(shore fishery) 675 



Northeast shore of Newfoundland boat fishery among the islands in Bonavista Bay and Bay of Notre Dame, 



I - jo miles, 7 miles deep 840 



Area of Biitish Newfoundland boat fishery 4,116 



Area f French Newfoundland boat fishery 2,088 



Total area of Newfoundland boat fishery 6,204 



Area of Northern Labrador boat fishery Cape Harrison to Cape Mugford 5,200 



Area of Southern Labrador boat fishery Cape Harrison to Blanc Sablon, estimated, 5 miles deep 1,900 



Total area of Labrador boat fishery 7,100 



"Physical outlines of the coast. As in Norway, so on the Labrador, the whole coast, from the 

 Straits of Belle Isle to Hebron, is deeply cut by profound fiords, penetrating the land from 30 to 

 70 miles. These fiords have been mapped so far as Hamilton Inlet by the officers of Her Majesty's 

 vessels, but beyond that point no surveys have been made and published, with the exception of 

 those before mentioned. As an illustration of one of the unsurveyed fiords, I append a sketch plan, 

 made this summer, of Kypokok Bay, the next bay north of Aillik. It is 53 miles deep, estimated 

 from Aillik Head, and has an average breadth of 3 miles. Opposite the Hudson Bay Company's 

 post, 35 miles from Aillik Head, the water is more than 50 fathoms deep, although not above a 

 mile across. This bay or fiord has been excavated by glaciers, like all the other fiords on this 

 coast, and the innumerable islands of the coast are rocky eminences, which have escaped the gen- 

 eral glacial denudation. But the glaciers of Labrador have probably left even more valuable 

 records, in the form of moraines, of their early existence here than deep fiords or innumerable 

 islands. These are the shoals or banks which lie some 15 miles outside of the islands, and on 

 which icebergs strand in long lines and in groups. I have styled them the Inner Range of 

 Banks, to distinguish them from a supposed Outer Range in deeper water, where large icebergs 

 sometimes take the ground. The inner banks, as far as they are known, are stated by fishermen 

 to have from 20 to 40 fathoms of water on them. Commander Maxwell's soundings between Cape 

 Harrison and Gull Island, near Hopedale, and just outside of the island zoue, rarely show depths 

 greater than 40 fathoms. In one instance only, in a distance of about 1 10 nautical miles, is a depth 

 of 59 fathoms recorded. 



"Absence of islands on the Southern Labrador. The Admiralty chart portrays a very impor- 

 tant confirmation of the Labrador coast line, from Saint Lewis Sound to Spotted Island. The trend 

 of the coast line between the Battle Islands, south of Saint Lewis Sound, and Spotted Island, Domino 

 Run, a distance of 65 miles, is due north, and, with very few exceptions, there are no islands off 

 the coast throughout this distance, excluding the group close inshore between Spotted Island 

 and Stony Island. As soon as the coast line begins to turn northwesterly, islands become 

 numerous and continually increase in number as far as Cape Mugford, and even towards Cape 

 Chudleigh. Between Cape Harrison and Cape Mugford the island zoue may be estimated as hav- 

 ing a depth of 20 miles from the month of the fiord seawards. The cause of the general absence 

 of islands south of Spotted Island and Stony Island can probably be traced to the never ceasing 



