BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



consequence, the fishery which has languished for many years will prob- 

 ably be prosecuted with great vigor during the coining season. 



NOTE UPON THE SCRAGG-WHALE. 



Upon extending my inquiries in various lines, I discovered that the 

 fisbermen recognize a certain whale under the name of " scragg-whale." 



1 could not satisfy myself as to what it really is. It was described as 

 being smooth on the back and having short, dark whalebone. Is it 

 Cope's Agaphelus, or some other species of fin-back or hump-back whale? 



. Washington, October 10, 1884. 



3.— THE LABRADOR FISHERIES. 



By W. A. STEARNS. 



Cod Fishing. — The men engaged in the Labrador cod- fishery are of 

 two classes, the employers and the employed. The employers all along 

 the coast are generally men who coming here poor have earned their 

 way by hard work and " luck" to a position of more or less independ- 

 ence, or have been sent as agents from some firm of merchants abroad 

 to hire men and conduct a fishery, large or small, as the wealth of the 

 firm or the accumulation of business may allow. There are several of 

 these foreign firms on the coast, notably those of Natashquan and Mag- 

 pie, and much further eastward of Blanc Sablon and Isle la Bois; these, 

 I believe, are all owned by merchants from Jersey in tbe English Chau- 

 .nel. Among the many who have lived on the coast and worked up a 

 business of their own, the establishment of W. H. Whitely, the magis- 

 trate for this part of the province of Quebec, is the largest ; as the 

 smaller "rooms," as these establishments are called, are simply a repe- 

 tition of the larger ones on a smaller scale, a full description of that 

 owned and conducted by Mr. Whitely will give you a pretty good idea 

 of all. 



The men employed in the fishery here are either hired from the sur- 

 rounding families or from Newfoundland. The home men are rough, 

 hearty, healthy, and good-natured, and those from Newfoundland, gen- 

 erally speaking, are large, robust, rough men in most every respect. 

 They are apt to be quarrelsome, and in many cases, I sadly fear, the 

 habit of taking whatever they see that they wish and can safely get 

 away with is very strongly embedded in their nature. When detected 

 they seem, like the ancient Spartans, to regret being caught more than 

 to have taken what was not theirs. Yet many are the reverse of ill- 

 natured. All are strong and accustomed to endurance tlmt would wear 

 out any ordinary individual, while it just seems to fit them for their 

 work. Having employed some thirty or forty men the season before, 

 the next thing is to get everything in readiness for their reception and 



