58 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



record as having applied in 1717 for the privilege of the 

 same fishing, basing his claim thereto upon the fact that he 

 owned the seigniory of Kamouraska, upon which his late 

 father had expended very large sums, and also upon his own 

 services as Lieutenant in the colonial troops. 



Both the original grantees were at this time dead, and 

 the Sieur Peire, who applied for a renewal of the concession 

 was a brother of one of them and had been a partner of both. 

 It would appear that he had only shortly before making 

 this application discovered a more economical method of 

 securing the porpoises, which consisted of an enclosure form- 

 ed of small trees in comparatively shallow water, into which 

 the huge fish were driven and captured. This method enabled 

 him to dispense with the enormous cost of cordage for the 

 nets in which he had previously secured the porpoises. In 

 view of his tremendous outlay in the past for nets and other 

 fishing plant, De Vaudreuil and Begon were anxious that he 

 should have an opportunity of recouping himself. The Sieur 

 de Boishebert, though seignior, was not, as they pointed out, 

 entitled as such, to the right of the porpoise fishery; since 

 what are known as the royal fishes, of which the porpoise is 

 one, were always reserved by the Crown, even without special 

 mention, when making concessions of seigniorial rights. Then, 

 too, it was pointed out, that only two of the six porpoise 

 fishery establishments of M. Peire were situated within the 

 limits of M. Boishebert 's siegniory. But taking into consider- 

 ation both the splendid services of Boishebert as a good officer, 

 and the losses and heavy expenditure of Peire in an under- 

 taking of such importance to the colony, they recommended 

 to the Secretary of State that these porpoise fishing privi- 

 leges should be accorded jointly, and in equal shares, to Bois- 

 hebert and Peire, provided that the former reimbursed Peire 

 for half the value of the buildings and fishing utensils fur- 

 nished by him at his six different establishments, the value 

 in question to be decided by arbitration. The recommend- 

 ation was approved both by the Council of the Marine and 

 also by the Regent of France. 



