228 ^ THE MBRADOIl PENINSULA. chap. xxxv. 



The Americans are fully alive to the importance of the 

 fisheries in British American waters. They have not 

 only given the utmost publicity to their views, but they 

 have proved their sincerity by the Eeciprocity Treaty, 

 which permits Ameidcans to enjoy the same rights as the 

 colonists on the coasts of Britisli America. A recent 

 document, emanating from the House of Eepresentatives, 

 states that — 



The chief wealth of Newfoundland and of the Labrador coast 

 is to be found in their extensive and inexhaustible fisheries, in 

 which the other Provinces also partake. The future products 

 of these, when properly developed by human ingenuity and 

 industry, defy human calcidation. The Gulf Stream is met 

 near the shores of Newfoundland by a current from the Polar 

 basin, vast deposits are formed by the meeting of the opposing 

 waters, the great submarine islands known as ' The Banks ' are 

 formed, and the rich pastures created in Ireland by the warm 

 and humid influence of the Gfulf Stream are compensated by the 

 ' rich sea-pastures of Newfoundland.' The fishes of warm or 

 tropical waters, inferior in quality and scarcely capable of pre- 

 servation, cannot form an article of commerce like those pro- 

 duced in inexhaustible quantities in these cold and shallow 

 seas. The abundance of these marine resources is unequalled 

 in any portion of the globe.* 



The fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coast 

 of Labrador may be divided into two classes, the sea 

 fisheries and the river fisheries. The followdng paragraphs 

 contain a brief summary of the value of these diflferent 

 fisheries to the nations who prosecute them ; the details 



the Institute of France, submitted a report to tlie Emperor during the 

 3'ear 1861, whose title shows the interest taken in this prolific subject, 

 ' On the Organisation of Fisheries as regards the Increase of the Naval 

 Force of France.' 

 • * Report on the Ileciprocity Treaty with Great Britain, Feb. 5, 1862. 



