II 



tion. The skins are salted, and in due time shipped to 

 England, where they are manufactured into leather, being 

 split by machinery into leaves of various thicknesses, and 

 recently, through the enterprise of Messrs. Stephen and 

 Son, of Dundee, several descriptions of leather have been 

 produced, which meet the wants of bookbinders and 

 upholsterers as well as the former purpose of shoe-leather, 

 to which, until recently, the Newfoundland sealskin was 

 exclusively applied. The exceptional superiority of these 

 various descriptions of leather is proved by a Gold Medal 

 being awarded for them. 



The value of this item of the productions of the 

 colony shows an average of about ;^2 30,000 per annum. 

 The men employed in the industry number about ten 

 thousand. They are the flower of the labouring popula- 

 tion, and amongst them it is not easy to find a man over 

 forty years of age. For skill, daring, and power of endur- 

 ance, it would be difficult to match them anywhere, and 

 but for the obstacle arising out of the distance of the 

 colony from this country, we should probably have had a 

 batch of these fine fellows brought over to see and to be 

 seen, without any fear that they would suffer by comparison 

 with the fishermen of this kingdom, whose presence during 

 the Exhibition has been such an appropriate and gratifying 

 feature of this magnificent display. 



The Herring Fishery. 



Following in importance to the seal comes the herring 

 fishery. The supply of this fish is very large, especially on 

 the south-west coast, where, during the winter and spring- 

 months, a material amount of business is done, a large 

 portion of the fish being sent to the United States in a 



