152 FISHERIES OF THE NORTH SEA 



bilities of the North Sea. Let us now turn 

 to Canada. 



The Gulf Stream and the Labrador Cur- 

 rent meet near to the coast of Newfound- 

 land, each bringing vast quantities of sedi- 

 ment which, in the mixing of the waters, 

 becomes deposited : in the same region 

 the St. Lawrence pours out detritus, and 

 the river ice floating down melts and drops 

 all kinds of particles ; the icebergs coming 

 down from the north contribute their quota 

 of suspended material. This ice action, 

 combined with the conflicting currents, 

 for countless ages has been moulding high 

 banks of sand right out in the Atlantic. 

 Here again are ideal conditions of tem- 

 perature, salinity, movement, and plankton, 

 in fact, all the favourable agents which 

 we have in the North European waters, 

 and the result is one of the most produc- 

 tive fishing grounds in the world. One- 

 third of the population of Newfoundland 

 is engaged in the fisheries, which for three 

 hundred years have been famous. The 

 wealth of the sea was originally the great 

 attraction to the early immigrants who 

 settled on the coast, and it is only in recent 



