THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 99 



of Saint Lawrence the British fishermen eagerly and boldly 

 entered those fishing grounds from which they had been 

 excluded. By the time peace was concluded between the 

 two countries, in 1763, they were carrying on the business 

 of capturing whales, sea-cows, and seals to a greater extent 

 than it had been conducted by the French. 1 A revival of 

 all kinds of fisheries began in New England as soon as the 

 fall of the French strongholds made the colonists safe in 

 pursuing their vocation on the distant fishing banks. 

 Thirteen thousand men had been raised in 1759 for the 

 siege of Quebec. With the fall of that city the men re- 

 turned to engage in their former occupations. How zeal- 

 ously they plied their trade is to be seen in the gains made 

 immediately upon the revival of the fishing business. The 

 revival of the fisheries at the close of the French and Indian 

 War was the beginning of a period of great prosperity on 

 the sea which continued uninterrupted until the opening 

 of the Revolutionary War, a dozen years later. 



Salem claimed thirty fishing vessels in 1762 which 

 brought in 11,177 quintals of merchantable fish and 17,498 

 quintals of Jamaica fish. The year that peace was con- 

 cluded, 1763, there were three hundred vessels in the cod- 

 fishery which brought in 240,000 quintals of fish valued 

 at $600,000; ninety mackerel vessels caught 18,000 barrels 

 worth above $80,000; one hundred and eighty vessels en- 

 gaged in the whale fishery had returns valued above 

 $392,000; other fish and fish by-products yielded enough 

 more to make the total value of the fisheries for that year 

 above $1,200,000. 2 



When the time came for determining conditions of peace 

 in 1763 there was a strong party in England opposed to 

 granting to the subjects of France any privileges in 

 America. The causes for so determined an attitude are 



iMacPherson, III, p. 371. 



2 Mass Hist. See. Coll., VIII, pp. 202-203. 



