386 WHALE-FISHERY. 



every child under fourteen years of age. The last 

 monthly payment was made on the 24th of De- 

 cember 1818* 



The fishery on the coast of Labrador commences 

 occasionally in tlie month of March. On this station, 

 which is inhabited by a large description of whales, 

 some fishers have persevered altogether, and have 

 sometimes procured great cargoes. It is, however, 

 a dangerous fishery. The nights being long and 

 dark on their first arrival, they are obliged to use 

 lanterns in tlieir boats, when fish happen to be 

 struck, or to remain unsubdued at the close of 

 day, for the purpose of keeping the ships and boats 

 together ; on which occasions, the stormy weather 

 that frequently occurs at this season, exposes them 

 to continual danger. Those who prosecute the 

 northern fishery, after making the ice at the 

 " South- West," as the neighbourhood of the La- 

 brador coast is usually denominated, proceed al- 

 most immediately up Davis' Straits, towards Baf- 

 fin's Bay. If, in the month of April or begin- 

 ning of ]May, they commence this navigation, and 

 sail along the edge of the western ice to the 



* Captain Beiuiet's communication by letter. — It is some- 

 what remarkable, that Captain Mathews of the London, wlio 

 perished when his sliip was lost, was engaged as chief-mate of 

 the Royalist, for the voyage in which she v/as wi'ecked, but, 

 by some accident, was prevented from sailing in her. In the 

 first instance, he had an extraordinary escape from premature 

 death, and yet tlixce yeai-s iifterwards he suffered a similar ca-» 

 lamity. 



sSab— 



