BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 605 



boat and hasten home to distribute these little fish amongst the 

 fishermen belonging to the same establishment. Each cod-fishing 

 boat receives an equal share of the fish thus brought .by the seiner. 



When the caplin and sand launce have disappeared from the coast, 

 or do not come near enough to the beach to be taken by the seine, the 

 fishermen have to go out every evening and take herring and mackerel 

 in drift-nets; or squid and other fish with hooks and lines. 



Late in the fall, the only fish that can be taken for bait is the 

 smelt. 



The fishing from the beginning of the season to the fifteenth of 

 August is called the summer-fishing; what is carried on after that 

 date is called the autumn-fishing. All the cod taken until the end 

 of September is salted and dried to be exported to foreign countries; 

 what is taken from the first of October to the end of the fishing 



season is salted and packed in barrels and sent to the local markets. 

 ******* 



The sea fishery next in importance to the cod fishery in Canada is the 



HERRING FISHERY, 



the value of which, according to our last statistics, was 1,721,822 

 dollars. 



The herring arrives in the Canadian waters early in the spring, and 

 as soon as the ice has disappeared from our coasts. From the month 

 of April to the month of December it is seen in immense shoals on the 

 Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the 

 Gulf of Canso, in the numerous coves and bays formed by the Mag- 

 delen Islands, and in the Baie des Chaleurs. 



In winter it disappears from our northern coasts, though a con- 

 siderable quantity is taken during that time along the southern coast 

 of New Brunswick. 



In many of our bays, in the spring, the herring sometimes appear 

 in such dense shoals near the shore, that the pressure upon each other, 

 increased by the force of the tide, kills them by thousands. 



" It is impossible without seeing," writes Dr. Fortin, " to form a 

 correct idea of the prodigious abundance of the ova of the herring 

 deposited on all the coast where the herring spawns. I have seen, 

 in many instances, the shore covered two or three feet deep with them 

 for several miles. This will, perhaps, appear astonishing to some 

 persons; but they will soon recover from their astonishment when 

 they reflect upon the fact that the female herring has from six to 

 eight millions of ova in its ovaries. 



" Providence has no doubt ordained that there should be this 

 prodigious quantity of ova, in order that there should remain enough 

 for the preservation of the species in the numerical proportion re- 

 quired by the Creator, notwithstanding a loss of a great portion of 

 them which are washed on shore by the waves, or are devoured by 

 the little fishes. 



"As might naturally be expected, the appearance of the herring 

 along our coast does not fail to engage the attention of our fishermen, 

 for whom its capture is a highly profitable employment. 



"No sooner in the spring has the first shoal of herrings been 

 observed at any place along the coast, than all the fishermen in the 

 neighbourhood repair to the beach with their nets, their lines, and all 



