244 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxxv. 



just applied to those of whom our people have too much 

 reason to complain. No doubt there are many excep- 

 tions ; but it is not the less true that in the present year 

 a great many of them have conducted themselves in the 

 most outrageous manner, in places where they had always 

 met with a kind reception.'* 



An attempt is now being made to establish oyster-beds 

 in different parts of the Gulf. As far as the experiment 

 has been tried, it has proved successful. The con- 

 sumption of oysters in America is immense. The annual 

 value of the oyster trade of Virginia alone, before the 

 outbreak of the civil war, was (^20,000,000, and the 

 oyster trade of Baltimore exceeds the whole wheat trade 

 of Maryland. The total value of the oyster and shell-fish 

 fisheries of the United States is estimated to be ,^25,000,000 

 per annum, or more than all the other fisheries put toge- 

 ther. The extraordinary rapidity with which the oyster 

 trade may become developed, may be inferred from the 

 report of M. Coste, to the Emperor of the French, on 

 ' the Organisation of the Fisheries,' wherein it is stated 

 that the production of oysters recommended by M. Coste 

 has taken such a prodigious developement, that, in the 

 Isle de Ee alone, more than 3,000 men who had come 

 from the interior have already estabhshed 1,500 parks, 

 which produce annually about 387,000,000 oysters of 

 the value of 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 francs. 



There can be no doubt that of late years the Govern- 

 ment of Canada has exerted itself to improve the fisheries 

 belonging to the province, but not in a degree com- 



* Sessional Papers, No. 15, 1861. 



