18 FISHING GROUNDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Pigeon-Hill cod ground consists of the shore soundings (four to seventeen fathoms) that 

 lie from ten to twenty miles southeasterly from Shippegan Island, New Brunswick, and extends 

 southward along the coast about eighteen to twenty miles. 



Codfishiug is pursued on all of these grounds — Bradelle Bank, Orphan Bank, Miscou Flat, 

 and Pigeon-Hill Ground — only during the warm seasons of the j^ear (May to October). 



The abundance of cod, especially of large fish, varies somewhat with the different seasons, 

 their presence in greater or less numbers being governed to a large extent by the amount of food 

 (herring, mackerel, etc.) on the ground. Miscou Flat and Orphan Bank are noted for large 

 codfish. There are sometimes what appear to be two schools of codfish at the same time on these 

 banks, one of which is caught in the day-time and the other only at night. The first is of small 

 size, but the second is extraordinarily large, being larger than are found at any other locality. 



The fishing is mostly carried on by residents of the vicinity in small boats, although some 

 Nova Scotia vessels and a limited number from the United States sometimes engage in it. 



Magdalen Islands. — The Magdalen Islands, which lie about fifty to sixty miles northwest 

 of Cape Saint Lawrence, Cape Breton Island, form an elongate chain trending in a northeast and 

 southwest direction. The total length of the chain with its outlying rocks is in the neighborhood 

 of fifty to fifty-five miles. 



The main group consists of five or six small islands, separated by narrow channels varying 

 in width from a few rods to half a mile. Its greatest length is thirty-six miles and its greatest 

 breadth about five or six miles. The shores of these islands are quite irregular, being very bold 

 and rocky in-some portions and in others formed of stretches of sand. 



The entire group lies toward the eastern edge of the sixty-fathom limit, but is wholly included 

 within it. The surrounding area, within a distance of five or seven miles of the islands, ranges in 

 depth from four to eighteen fathoms, and contains many small scattered rocky spots or reefs reach- 

 ing to near the surface of the water. The bottom, as indicated on the charts, is made up of sand, 

 shells, stones, and rocks. A reddish sandstone predominates in the shoal water about the islands. 

 Between the shallower soundings of the islands and Cape Breton Island the depth ranges from 

 twenty-four to seventy-five fathoms, the deepest water extending close along the Cape Breton 

 Island coast. Formerly, when hand-lines alone were used, codfishing was carried on to a 

 considerable extent around the entire group of islands; but since the introduction of trawls 

 United States fishermen have found it more profitable to resort elsewhere. The so called "sharp 

 bottom " of the region, due to the many rocks and stones scattered about, unsuits it for trawl 

 fishing. Now the codfishing is almost wholly carried on in the open boats of the resident 

 fishermen and by the small vessels belonging to the British Provinces and the French Islands 

 of Saint Pierre and Miquelou. A few catches of halibut have been taken on the shoals about 

 Byron Island, but the appearance of these fisli in that locality is so uncertain that the halibut 

 catchers rarely go there. 



Cape North Fishing-Ground. — Around the northern end of Cape Breton Island is located 

 a codfishingground which is of considerable importance for a few weeks in the spring and early 

 .summer. It lies between Cape North and Saint Paul's Island, at a distance of four to fifteen 

 miles from land ; thence it extends westerly about fifteen miles, and southwesterly, along the 

 coast of Cape Breton Island, as far as Limbo Cove. The shore here is high and steep, so that, 

 notwithstanding the (ilose proximity of the fishing-ground, the depth of water upon the latter is 

 from sixty-five to one hundred fathoms. The bottom is mostly tough clay, but ten to fifteen 

 miles from land some rocky ridges exist. The current sels out from the Gnlf of Saint Lawrence 

 toward the southeast, over a portion of the ground, although the direction changes more or less 

 with tlu> trend of the shore. 



