FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 105 



eau, Simon duBois, Falle and Durrell, and Emery and Best. 

 Fishermen from the Channel Islands have played an im- 

 portant part in the Canadian fisheries for the last century 

 and a half. 



THE JERSEY FISHING COMPANIES. 



The establishment on the shores of the Baie des Chaleurs 

 of the great fishing industries controlled by Jersey capital 

 and enterprise was almost contemporaneous with the fall of 

 New France. 



In his description of the Gaspe country published in 

 1863, Stanislas Drapeau quoted a previous writer, whom he 

 does not name, as follows: 



"Before Mr. Charles Eobin, nobody engaged in the cod 

 fish business in the Baie des Chaleurs. ' n 



This is, of course, an error, as we have already seen, in 

 connection with the catching and curing of cod fish in that 

 Bay, and with their shipment to Europe, by both the Sieur de 

 Denys and the Sieur de Riverin in the latter part of the 17th 

 century, though their commerce was not at all to be compared 

 in magnitude to that inaugurated by the Robins. 



It is perfectly true, however, that Charles Robin gave 

 a new impulse and development to the fishing industry of 

 the Gaspe coast. For many years previously very little fish 

 had been dried there for export. Beyond what was required 

 for local consumption, most of the green cod fish of the Baie 

 des Chaleurs fishermen was then supplied to the Quebec mar- 

 ket. 



It was at Paspebiac that Charles Robin founded his first 

 Canadian fishing establishment. From this beginning was 

 destined to spring one of the most remarkable instances of 

 industrial development yet witnessed in Canada. In their 

 long control of the cod fisheries of the Gaspe coast, and for 



i Etudes BUT les developpements de la colonisation du Bas- 

 Canada depuis dix ans. Par Stanislas Drapeau, Quebec, 1863, pp. 

 17, 18. 



