4 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



are indebted for much valuable material extracted from 

 original sources regarding the earliest sedentary fisheries of 

 the Baie des Chaleurs. 



Mr. C. J. Simard, Assistant Secretary of the Province 

 of Quebec, and Mr. Evanturel, in charge of the provincial 

 archives, have afforded me every facility for consulting the 

 manuscript sources of information in possession of the de- 

 partment, while to the Hon. J. Douglas Hazen, Minister of 

 Marine and Fisheries for the Dominion of Canada, to Mr. 

 Johnston, Deputy Minister, and to Mr. Found and other 

 officials of that department, I am under obligations for the 

 loan of important documentary matter bearing upon a later 

 period of our fisheries than that chiefly dealt with in the fol- 

 lowing pages, but which will, it is hoped, form the subject 

 of a subsequent report. 



That "ecrin de perles ignorees," as Frechette so aptly 

 calls the history of our dear Province of Quebec, holds 

 many priceless gems of religious fervour and patriotic de- 

 votion, but among its ever-to-be cherished jewels of courage- 

 ous daring and lofty ambition for home and country and 

 people, and the extension of legitimate influence and power, 

 must surely be counted, also, those bold plunges of the pioneer 

 fishermen of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, into practically un- 

 known western seas, and those fearless attempts to establish 

 the first sedentary fisheries on Canadian soil, amid the un- 

 civilized aborigines of Gaspesia and the yet more savage 

 Esquimaux of Labrador, often in the face of hostile fleets, 

 and subject to the ravages of roving pirates, who pillaged 

 and wrought destruction with fire and sword both at sea 

 and on shore. 



The Canadian angler of to-day with some knowledge 

 of the history of his country's fisheries and while enjoying 

 his summer vacation on some of our inland waters, with per- 

 haps an Indian guide for his only companion, will not be 

 uninterested in recalling the orders issued to the inhabitants 

 of Montreal, two and a quarter centuries ago, to remain in 

 certain well-defined limits when going a-fishing, for fear of 

 being surprised and murdered by the savage Iroquois; and 



