FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 137 



in a great degree, hinder the settlement of the Coast. Now- 

 a-days there are some who say that a few yards is a sufficient 

 berth. However, the old settlers do not choose to submit 

 to these self-made legislators, and thence the cause of the 

 quarrels I mentioned before, one wishing to retain the pro- 

 fits of his capital and industry, and the other insisting on a 

 part of the harvest which he neither laboured for nor sowed. 

 The foregoing remarks equally apply to the salmon fisheries 

 in the rivers. 



''I shall now offer some observations on that part of the 

 coast occupied by the Hudson Bay Company. First, the 

 King's Domain, properly so called, being leased to the highest 

 bidder by Government for a certain term, ever since the year 

 1732. This district stretches from the parishes on the North 

 Shore to Cape Cormorant, about 90 leagues, or 270 miles. 

 The lessees from the first have only occupied themselves with 

 the Indian trade and two or three salmon fisheries. The 

 number of establishments in this tract are six, viz. : Tadousac, 

 Portneuf, Jeremie, River Godbout, Seven Isles, and River 

 Moisie. The number of people employed, about twenty, who 

 are servants of the company, and occupied in trading with 

 the Indians. The next tract, usually called the Mingan 

 Seigneurie, which, the occupiers say, extends from Cape Cor- 

 morant to a river named Oroman, about 80 leagues or 240 

 miles (it appears from Bouchette, that the Seigneurie origin- 

 ally extended only to the River Goynish, this is 20 leagues 

 shorter). However, as this Seigneurie, like all others, was 

 granted under certain conditions, which, if not fulfilled, the 

 land should return to the King as if never granted, it is as 

 clearly the King's Domain now as what is above it, becauso 

 the Seigneurs have not only not fulfilled their conditions, but 

 have exerted every effort to prevent it ; instead of conceding 

 and peopling the Seigneury, they strive, by threats and other- 

 wise, to keep off all intruders, as they call British fishermen 

 and coasters who touch on these inhospitable shores, and as the 

 lessees of the Domain have also generally held the Mingan 

 Lordship, the two have always been confounded as if held 



