BANQUEREAU. 67 



uortli aud south, lias a minimum ■width of fifteen miles, and depths ranging from sixty-five 

 to one hundred fathoms. The total area of Saint Pierre Bank is about fort;ysix hundred square 

 geographical miles. The depths range from twenty-two to fifty fathoms, the bottom being 

 mostly composed of rocks and pebbles, although in some parts there are considerable areas 

 of sand aud gravel. Ordinarily, there is not much current over this bank, although at times, 

 •when driven by strong winds, the jjolar current, -which sweeps around the south coast of Xew- 

 foundland, becomes quite strong. 



Cod and halibut are the only food-fishes found in any considerable numbers on the bank of 

 Saint Pierre, though a few cusk and haddock are sometimes taken. The general season for both 

 cod and halibut begins usually about the first of April and continues until jS^ovember. Cod are 

 most abundant from the first of June to October, during which period they come iu pursuit of 

 capelin and squid. Halibut were formerly abundant on vai-ious parts of this ground during the 

 spring and summer, but now they are rarely numerous except in the deeper water along the edges, 

 or on rocky spots fifteen to twenty miles distant from the bank, in localities where no sound- 

 ings are indicated on the published charts. Some of the schools of halibut breed on these 

 rocky patches, but the greater number merelj' pass along the edge during their migrations toward 

 the north. But few fishing-vessels, beyond the fresh halibut catchers and those owned by the 

 French, resort at present to the bank of Saint Pierre, as some of the other neighboring banks offer 

 much greater inducements. Saint Pierre has, therefore, lost a great deal of its former prestige as 

 a fishing-ground, and assumes but a second rank among our great ocean banks. 



The invertebrate fauna of this bank is moderately rich, but much less so than that of many 

 parts of the Grand Bank, the fauna of the two regions including, however, about the same variety 

 of forms. 



BANQUEEEAU. 



Banquereau may be regarded as one of the most important fishiug-banks lying between the 

 fortieth and forty-eighth parallels of north latitude. Its entire outline is very irregular, but the 

 main portion of the bank has a somewhat rectangular shape, with an elongate and nearlj" regular 

 prolongation extending to the west. The length of the bank in an east and west direction is a 

 little more than one hundred and twenty miles, and its greatest width about forty-seven miles; 

 its total area is about two thousand eight hundred square miles. The main portion of the 

 bank lies between 44° 04' and 45° 01' north latitude, aud 57° 10' aud 59° west longitude, and the 

 western i^rolougation between 44° 24' and 44° 42' north latitude, and 59° and 00° 05' west 

 longitude. Xorth of Banquereau lie Artimon and Misaine Banks, the former being distant only 

 about three miles and the latter from two to fifteen miles, the intervening depths ranging from 

 sixty-one to one hundred and fifty-five fathoms. South of the western part of the bank is the 

 eastern part of Sable Island Bank, from which it is separated by the "Gully" to be described 

 further on. 



On the eastern part of Banquereau there is an area of shoal ground, called the "Eocky 

 Bottom," having a depth of about sixteen fathoms; elsewhere the depths range from eighteen to 

 fifty fathoms, and the bottom is rocky as a rule, but on some parts of the bank there are patches 

 of sand and gravel. 



A current issuing from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence here meets the polar current, but 

 although this produces some disturbance of the surface waters, the latter current is usually the 

 stronger, and the tendency of the flow is, therefore, chiefly towards the west. The force as well 

 as the direction of the current is much influenced by the wind, so that while quite strong tides 

 may prevail for several days at a time, intervals may follow when there is but little if any current. 



