20 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



porpoises, sea-horses, and adhothuys, 1 a kind of fish we had 

 never seen or heard of. They are as large as a porpoise, 

 white as snow, have a body and head like a greyhound, and 

 stay in brackish water 

 between the river of 

 Saguenay and Canada. ^^^ 

 There will also be found ^J / 



in June, July and y 



August, plenty of mac- 

 kerel, mullet, barr (sar- Jacques Cartier 

 tres), large eels and other fish, also smelt, as good as in the 

 River Seine, and plenty of lampreys and salmon. Above 

 Canada (i.e. Quebec) are bass, trouts, carp, bream and other 

 fresh water fish. And all fish are taken in large numbers in 

 their season by the tribes for food. " : 



EARLY NORMAN FISHERMEN. 



As a result of Carrier's explorations and of his descrip- 

 tions of the new western lands and of the fisheries of their 

 seas, Norman merchants reached out so promptly for the 

 commercial possibilities of the lands and waters of New 

 France the fisheries of which had declined considerably, 

 according to E. Gosselin, since 1527 that in January and 

 February of 1541, 1542, no less than sixty ships went "to fish 

 for cod in the New Lands," while in the corresponding 

 months of the three following years, two ships sailed daily, 

 on an average, on the same mission, from Havre and Rouen 

 and from Dieppe and Honfleur. 3 



1 This was apparently the Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas) 

 sometimes called simply Beluga, and by others the white whale, 

 now known as porpoise in English, and as marsouin in French. 

 Schools of these fish are frequently met in the brackish water of 

 the St. Lawrence and occasional individuals have been seen in the 

 harbor of Quebec. They are common at the mouth of the Saguenay. 



2 Relation Originate du Voyage de Jacques Cartier au Canada 

 en 1535. 



3 Narrative and Critical History of America, by Justin Winsor, 

 vol. IV, p. 61. 



See also page 13 of Documents authentiques et in^dits pour 

 servir a Vhistoire de la marine Normande et du commerce Rouen- 



