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Mr. Perley, present by invitation, made some statements 

 in relation to the fisheries of the Bay of Fundy. 



During the past three months he had been officially engaged 

 in examining those fisheries. 



He had found that the staple fish of the Bay of Fundy is the 

 Hake, Gadiis carhonarius. It is a singular fact that, although so 

 numerous there, he had never seen one in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, or met with a fisherman who had seen one in that locality. 

 The fish next in importance, in the Bay of Fundy, is the Shad, 

 Alosa vulgaris. These fish, after traversing the Atlantic coast, 

 arrive in great numbers in the Bay and proceed at once up the 

 rivers to spawn ; where they remain but a short time, continuing 

 on to the head of the Bay, to feed on a marine worm, which is 

 very abundant on the mud flats. A second run of fish which do 

 not spawn, follows the first, and arrives in a much fatter condi- 

 tion. The Cod fishery is only good at the mouth of the Bay, 

 where the depth of water is about sixty fathoms. Here the Cod 

 are taken of great size, averaging fourteen to the quintal. 



Mr. Perley also made some statements with regard to the 

 existence of fossil trees, &,c. in the coal mines at the log- 

 gings, Cumberland Bay. They have been found in this 

 locality in great numbers. He presented specimens of fos- 

 sils from the shores of the Bay of Fundy, Specular Iron 

 ore from the neighborhood of the Harbor of St. Johns, 

 White Marble, cubes of which had been quarried six feet 

 in diameter, and which it was thought might answer for 

 statuary purposes, from the head of the Bay of Fundy ; Ala- 

 baster from the same vicinity ; Carbonate of Copper from 

 the Five Islands, and Barytes. 



In reply to a question from Mr. J. E. Cabot relative to the 

 alleged subsidence of the shore of Newfoundland, Mr. Perley 

 replied, that it is a well known fact, that the harbors on the south 

 and east side of Newfoundland are deepening, while on the 

 northern shore they are growing shallow ; harbors which 

 twenty years ago were deep enough for large vessels now hardly 

 admitting shallops. On the south side of the Island of Grand 



