To the 



. Honourable C. R. DEVLIN, 



Minister of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries, 



QUEBEC. 

 Sir, 



I have the honour to submit herewith the first instalment 

 of a historical introduction to a study of the fisheries of the 

 Province of Quebec. 



Though no attempt has thus far been made to compile 

 anything like a complete or consecutive record of early Cana- 

 dian fisheries, the facilities are certainly not lacking. In tho 

 pages of Cartier, Champlain, Lescarbot, Charlevoix, Denys 

 and Chrestien LeClercq, and down to those of Pierre Fortiii 

 and 1'Abbe Ferland, we are shown picturesque views of the 

 fish and fishing of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, of Gaspesia and 

 of the Labrador coast; while scattered in rich profusion 

 among the voluminous archives of New France, in the 

 Marine Department at Paris, in the Bibliotheque Nationale 

 and elsewhere are numerous official documents containing 

 valuable information on the same important subjects. A 

 considerable number of these last-mentioned papers hitherto 

 unpublished have been copied for me in Paris by the cour 

 tesy of Dr. A. G. Doughty, C.M.G., Chief Archivist of 

 Canada; as well as other manuscripts in the files of his own 

 department at Ottawa. 



Dr. William F. Ganong, of Smith College, in his notes 

 to the recently issued editions of both Nicholas Denys 

 and Chrestien LeClercq, published by the Champlain So- 

 ciety, has also brought to light a number of documents ill 

 the Clairambault Collection in Paris, relating to the fisheries 

 of New France, while to Dr. John M. Clarke, of Albany, we 



M373487 



