296 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xvm. 



* 



and many of them mentally resolve, no doubt, that they 

 will take up their abode in a country which appears so 

 rich in the good things of this life. But sickness soon 

 seizes them with the first change of weather, and they 

 begin to sigh for the pure dry air of their native mountain 

 wilds. 



I took a canoe and crossed the Moisie Bay to visit the 

 fishermen on the opposite side, and there saw Louis' 

 wife in company with two half-breed girls ; she was 

 cold, haughty, and handsome, taking no notice of Louis, 

 who had paddled me across the Bay. The poor fellow 

 was very disconsolate, but recovered his spirits when 

 some one told him that the priest intended to effect a 

 reconciliation when they came to Seven Islands. 



The fishing-station at the mouth of the Moisie Bay, like 

 most other similar places on the north shore of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, presents during the summer season a busy 

 and animated scene, but in the winter it is desolate. In 

 1859 the population in the summer was 1,500 engaged in 

 fishing for cod, with 300 boats. In 1860 the population 

 was 1,000, with 250 boats ; in winter the total number of 

 people remaining to take care of the fishing establishments 

 was twenty-one, in 1859-60. The Bay, especially on the 

 east side, presented a very lively aspect when we visited it, 

 and there were some ten or a dozen schooners at anchor 

 taking in cargoes of fish. The beach was lined with stores 

 and ' flakes ' on which some 100,000 cod fish were drying 

 at the time of our visit. We went to see Mr. Tetu's patent 

 deep sea fishery in which he had taken 150,000 cod fish 

 in a fortnight. It consists of an immense net divided into 

 eight compartments, into which the fish enter without 



