The Southern Cod Banks 285 



have in this amazing harvest of the sea, but no neglect 

 is intended or imagined. It is one of the principal 

 businesses in many small coast towns, and without 

 the Cod no one can guess what would become of the 

 hardly used Newfoundland fishermen. That much- 

 neglected colony of ours has many grievances, but 

 one of the chief is that, situated in the very middle 

 of the most valuable fishery in the world, she sees 

 the best part of it taken away from her by others, 

 and she is compelled to bear upon her flanks the open 

 sore of a French colony, whose reckless inhabitants 

 are a positive menace to her interests, whose behaviour 

 is of the worst, and who apparently cannot be removed 

 by any international amenities whatever.^ 



It is a far cry from Newfoundland to the Cape of 

 Good Hope for us, but not for the distribution of fish. 

 For off the Cape of Agulhas (which is the southernmost 

 point of Africa, and not, as is popularly supposed, 

 the Cape of Good Hope) and to the eastward of it, 

 there is a plateau rising from the sea-bed to within 

 thirty and sixty fathoms of the surface, nearly ten 

 thousand square miles in area. This is known as the 

 Agulhas Bank, and is the chosen resort of Cod almost 

 exactly similar to those caught on the Grand Bank 

 of Newfoundland. 



But whereas one place is the scene of one of the 

 most lucrative fisheries in the world, the other is turned 

 to no account whatever. When people talk as they 

 do occasionally about the populations of the world 

 outgrowing the food supply, they really should pause 

 and think a little while. It is interesting to see how 

 little comparatively of the world's possibilities in the 



' Since the publication of the first edition of this book, I 

 am happy to say that the open sore of St. Pierre Miquelon 

 has been removed from Newfoundland by diplomacy. 



