94 Fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



quality. Mr. MacGregor states, that they are all equally delicious 

 with those taken on English, Irish, Scotch, or Norweigian Shores. 



Lobsters are found everywhere on the coast, and in the Bay of 

 Chaleur, in such extraordinary numbers, that they are used by 

 thousands to manure the land. At Shippagan and Caraquette, 

 carts are sometimes driven down to the beaches at low water, and 

 readily filled with Lobsters left in the shallow pools by the recession 

 of the tide. Every potato field near the places mentioned, is strewn 

 with Lobster shells, each potato hill being furnished w r ith two, and 

 perhaps three, Lobsters. 



Within a few years, one establishment has been setup on Portage 

 Island, at the mouth of the Miramichi River, and another at the 

 mouth of the Kouchibouguac River, for putting up Lobsters, in tin 

 cases, hermetically sealed for exportation. In 1845, no less than 

 13 000 cases of Lobsters and Salmon were thus put up at Portage 

 Island. In 1847, nearly 10,000 cases of Lobsters only, each case 

 containing the choicest parts of two or three Lobsters, and one and 

 a half tons of fresh Salmon, in 2R> and 4- lb cases, were put up at 

 Kouchibouguac. The preservation of Lobsters, in this manner, 

 need only be restricted by the demand, for the supply is almost 



unlimited. 



The price paid for Lobsters at the establishment on Portage Island 

 when the writer visited it, was two shillings and six pence currency 

 (two shillings sterling) per hundred. They were all taken in small 

 hoop-nets, chiefly by the Acadian French of the Neguac Villages, 

 who at the price stated, could with reasonable diligence, earn one 

 pound each in the twenty four hours; but as they are somewhat 

 idle and easily contented, they would rarely exert themselves to 

 earn more than ten shillings per day, which they could generally 

 obtain by eight or ten hours attention to their hoop-nets. 



Oysters are found all along the New Brunswick Coast, -from 

 Baie Verte to Caraquette, but not within the Bay of Chaleur. 

 Those best known in this Province for their fine quality, are the 

 Oysters of Shediac ; but the extensive beds which formerly existed 

 there have been almost wholly destroyed by improper modes of 

 fishing, an utter disregard of the spawning season, and the wanton 

 destruction of the fish by throwing down shells upon the beds. It 

 is a singular fact, that ice will not form over an Oyster bed, unless 

 the cold is verv intense indeed ; and when the Bays are frozen over 

 in the winter, the Oyster beds are easily discovered by the water 

 above them remaining unfrozen, or as the French residents say, 



