298 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xvin. 







and Gulf of St. Lawrence are of the highest commercial 

 importance. The extent of coast under the juris- 

 diction of the Canadian Government, washed by salt or 

 brackish water, exceeds 900 miles, and at different 

 seasons of the year the sea which it confines abounds 

 in a great variety of fish and marine animals. 



The shoals of herring, cod, and mackerel which 

 approach the Canadian shores during the spring and 

 summer are immense, and apparently inexhaustible. 



Towards the end of November, and at the beginning of 

 December, there are seen to enter the gulf, by the 

 straits of Belle Isle, innumerable herds of seals, which, 

 after having followed the coast of Labrador as far as 

 Cape Whittle, proceed to seek in the middle of the gulf 

 floating fields of ice, on which the females deposit their 

 young ones in the month of March.* 



Certain shoals, such as those of Mingan and St. John, 

 are frequented every year by a considerable number of 

 whales of different kinds ; the pursuit of this huge 

 animal engages many vessels from the Port of Gaspe. 



The salmon, justly called the king of fresh-water fish, is 

 found in most of the rivers of the North Shore, of Labrador 

 and on the coast of Gaspe. 



The sea-trout, the haddock, the halibut, the eel, the 

 caplin, the lobster, furnish the settlers along the shore 

 with abundance of excellent food. The cod, herring, 

 salmon, and the seal and whale, among warm-blooded 

 animals living in the sea, have attracted more or less the 



* Many of the facts mentioned iu this description of the fisheries of the 

 Gulf are from the excellent report for 1859 by Capt. Fortin, commanding 

 the ' Canadienne/ a Government vessel employed in the protection of the 

 fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



