[PRINCE] BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF CANADIAN WATERS TOI 
The average depth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is 200 fathoms; 
over 300 fathoms midway between Grosse Isle, the Magdalens, and 
Heath Point, Anticosti; and, as Dr. Whiteaves has pointed out, more 
than a hundred fathoms over a considerable part of its extent. 
Effect of Chignecto Upheaval on Fauna. 
May it not be that the elevation which cut off communication 
between Chignecto Bay and Baie Verte, and between Cobequid Bay and 
Pictou, in other words, between the Bay of Fundy, as a whole, and the 
Straits of Northumberland, so affected the fauna of the waters north, 
i.e. the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as to leave only isolated traces of a former 
community of species. The Brachiopod (Terebratulina septentrion- 
alis) which occurs quite plentifully in well-known patches in Passama- 
quoddy Bay and further south, occurs in very deep water in the Gulf, 
as Dr. Whiteaves has stated; the oyster occurs abundantly for several 
hundreds of miles south of the Bay of Fundy, but survives in the north 
no further than Caraquet, and, in scattered beds, all the way down to 
Pictou and Pugwash, while the Prince Edward Island shores are more 
or less an oyster bed all round. 
Banks of the Gulf and Atlantic Shore. 
In many ways the fishing banks of the Atlantic coast of Canada 
differ from the European banks referred to. They are much deeper, 
descending in the case of the Grand Banks to 160 fathoms, though 25 
to 50 fathoms is a very usual depth. The German Bank, and Quaco 
Bank in the Bay of Fundy, have long been productive, but the great shelf 
which extends from the Seal Island grounds, off western Nova Scotia, 
round to Cape Breton and from the Cape North banks by way of the 
Magdalen Islands to Cape Gaspé, embraces the greatest fishing areas 
in Canada, perhaps in the world. The Grand Banks are south east of 
Newfoundland and are more than 600 miles long by about 200 miles in 
breadth, an area larger than all I{aly, and the most extensive submarine 
elevation on our planet. The famous ‘ Bank codfishing’ is carried on 
in depths of 10 to 100 fathoms, 45 to 50 fathoms being most usual: 
but St. Peter’s Bank to the west, i.e. south of Bay Fortune, is deeper, 
fishing being conducted in water 130 fathoms deep. South-east of this 
bank is Southern Shoal Bank, and further west again is Green Bank. 
Towards Sable Island are Misaine Banks, and to the east, Canso Bank, 
while the famous Banquereau continues by the Western Bank to Sable 
Island Banks and south to La Have Bank and Ridges, situated between 
Sambro and Roseway Banks off the south eastern shores of western Nova 
Sec. IV., 1907. 5. 
