14 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



were taken by the vessels from the United States, Newfoundland, and 

 other provinces fishing here for the summer season only and returning 

 home in the autumn. This leaves a little over 56,000 quintals takeD by 

 the inhabitants of the coast for this district, with a value in the Quebec 

 markets of $5, and to the people themselves, as they sell for cash or 

 trade on board the regular authorized agents' trading vessels, of $3. Of 

 course living is cheap here. Little or nothiug is paid for laud and right 

 to fish ; the gear necessary is small, and the outlay only trifling for 

 small establishments, so that nearly all made is the clear gain of 

 expended labor. It must be remembered also that $100 here will go 

 farther than $400 or $500 in the States to these people, whose wants are 

 really few ; yet they are a hearty, healthy, and good-natured race. They 

 are entirely different from the French Canadians who abound in the 

 towns nearest Quebec, and seem to be, the farther eastward one goes 

 in the province, a race peculiar in themselves. 



In the 500 miles of coast from Manicouagan to Blanc Sablon, already 

 spoken of, there are several large fishing establishments whose yearly 

 catch of cod amounts to some over 1,000 quintals. They all pursue the 

 plan I have described in catching and curing their fish ; thus, of course, 

 more or less petty rivalry exists between them. Starting then from 

 Manicouagan and going eastward, the first place of any importance is 

 Caribou Island. Here the catch amounted to about 1,150 quintals; in 

 the same year (1878), Moisle, a little below, took about 1,260 quintals; 

 still further, Sheldrake took 5,850 quintals, the fourth largest catch 

 made on the coast. At Thunder River the take was 3,125 ; at Savage 

 Harbor, 1,300 ; at Pointe Ridge, 1,200 ; Magpie, 8,200 ; Saint John's 

 River, 7,500; Long Point, 1,050 ; Esquimaux Point, 2,010; Natashquau 

 Harbor, 1,000 ; Bonne Esperance, 1,700 ; Salmon Bay, 6,510 ; Long- 

 Point, 1,270. It will be seen that several of these establishments took 

 much larger catches than the others. Of these, Sheldrake had 73 boats? 

 valued at $4,380, and employing 237 men ; Magpie, 95 boats, valued at 

 $5,700, employing 332 men ; Saint John's River, 114 boats, valued at 

 $6,840, and employing 358 men, and Salmon Bay 41 boats, valued at 

 $3,110, and employing 154 men. 



Salmon. — One of the most important of the Labrador fisheries next 

 to the cod is that of the salmon, though they are by no means as exten- 

 sive here as they are in the lower Canadian provinces, especially of Resti- 

 gouche and the Bay of Chaleur, on the south side of the river Saint Law- 

 rence. The salmon go up the river to spawn ; returning they are found 

 in the adjacent waters of the rivers along the coast iir the late summer 

 and early fall. The nmnber of fish annually captured is immense. The 

 best and iu fact only real season for capturing these fish is a few weeks 

 in the early autumn. They are caught in gill-nets, large or small, with 

 a regulation mesh of 6 inches. The nets are placed along shore at the 

 mouth of the river, or across some channel of the stream, and visited 



every day, Tli-;* tish entangle ttoeipgel^efi i« $e wegbes, ^hich &rg 



