FISHERIES. 237 



principal fishes, but all other varieties known in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence are represented in proportionate numbers. 

 Even in the depths of winter, fish can be procured in large 

 quantities. At this season, at the mouth of Kestigouche, 

 dozens of Indian boys earn their livelihood by fishing 

 through the ice with hook and line for sea trout, and spear- 

 ing eels, tommy-cods, and smelts. The cod fishery in the 

 bay is almost wholly in the hands of Jersey firms, who have 

 been established on this coast for one hundred years. Their 

 establishments at Paspediac, at Perce, and at Caraquette, 

 are models of system and order. In the fishing season they 

 employ thousands of men and boats, and ship the cured 

 fish direct to Europe, the West Indies, and the Brazils. 



Notwithstanding this wealth of fishes, the fishermen 

 round the Bay of Chaleur are a very poor class. This is 

 partly owing to the wretched truck system which still 

 prevails. Instead of getting cash for their fish, they are 

 always in debt to the merchant for supplies furnished in 

 the winter and spring. Whilst the merchant makes out 

 of the fisherman 50 per cent, on his goods, and 50 per 

 cent, more on the fish he buys, he has also to take the risk 

 of supplying goods for which he may never be paid. This 

 trucking system is perhaps unavoidable in a new country 

 where communications are difficult, settlers poor, and pro- 

 visions scarce ; but the necessity for this state of things 

 exists no longer in the Bay of Chaleur, and probably the 

 completion of the Intercolonial railroad will put an end 

 to it. 



Hitherto the salmon caught in the Bay of Chaleur has 

 been put up in hermetically sealed tins for exportation. 

 Several firms have been engaged at this business, some of 



