242 THE LABEADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxxv. 



years. But assuming that they were equal to those of 



1856, the total value of the British American fisheries in 



1857, with respect to exportations alone, amounted to 

 2,280,955/. sterling, or about ^11,000,000. 



The value of the exports of fish from Nova Scotia 

 reached, in 1860, the large sum of ,^2,956,788, or witliin 

 44,000 of ^^3,000,000. This colony employed, in that 

 year, 3,258 vessels, with a gross tonnage of 248,061 

 tons, or a ton for each inhabitant. 



Wlien the fish and fish-oil consumed by the inliabitants 

 of the Provinces are taken into account, there can be no 

 doubt that the present annual value of the fisheries to 

 British America exceeds ^15,000,000. That part of the 

 catch on the Labrador coast which goes directly to Great 

 Britain or the Island of New Jersey, is not included in 

 this estimate. The value of the Labrador fisheries alone 

 has been estimated by a very competent person at one 

 miUion sterhng per annum. 



The total value of the fisheries of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and the coast of Labrador, as prosecuted under 

 the enjoyment of ' concurrent rights ' by the Americans, 

 the French, the British, and the provincials, cannot fall 

 short of four miUions sterling per annum, or about twenty 

 milhons of dollars. 



The Canadian fisheries are yet in their infancy. It is 

 only within the past half-dozen years that any attention 

 has been given to this important subject by the Govern- 

 ment. In the last Eeport of the Commissioners of Crown 

 Lands, under whose supervision the fisheries are now 

 placed, the following encouraging statement is made : — 

 ' The aggregate production of this soin^ce of wealth during 



