I50 NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



fishing been found. It is still its great source of wealth, 

 the dried cod alone bringing in nearly one and a half millions 

 of pounds sterling ; the total cod and inshore fisheries pro- 

 ducing annually nearly two million pounds. This gives some 

 slight idea of the abundance of the fish, but perhaps the 

 actual amount of cod taken in a single year will show this 

 even more clearly ; 200,000,000 is the estimated number. 

 Whether the fish are less numerous now than in the days 

 when they first attracted the attention of the European 

 fishermen it is difficult to say, but we can readily understand 

 what excitement was produced by the stories brought back 

 by Cabot and his crew, and how gladly men left; the less 

 prolific home waters for those of the West. Apparently it 

 was only as a fishing resort that the new island was regarded 

 for many years, so little importance being attached to the 

 land itself that it does not appear to have been taken as 

 a formal possession by any country, but was used as a 

 harbour land for the vessels of many nations until, in 

 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of St. John's 

 harbour in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Thus it will be 

 seen that the capital of Newfoundland is actually older by 

 some thirty years than New York. 



Mr. P. T. McGrath, in his excellent book on the country, 

 states that by " 1600 there were 200 English fishing-vessels 

 in the Newfoundland trade, employing 10,000 men and boys, 

 and garnering a product valued at ^500,000 sterling. A 

 handsome sum in those days, when a pound sterling had 

 much greater intrinsic value than it has to-day." 



The trade in fish has, as already shown, increased to 

 enormous proportions. In its development there have been 

 many serious international disputes, the mention of which 

 would be quite out of place in this volume. The whole 

 earlier history of the island was more or less a period of 



