138 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



under the same tenure. The number of establishments on this 

 last tract are four, viz. : Mingan, Napisippi, Natashquan and 

 Musquarow, employing about twenty men. Here we have 

 upwards of 500 miles of coast in the path of the commerce 

 of Quebec, comprising half of the seacoast of the Province 

 of Quebec and its chief harbours, locked up and held desert 

 for the only object of enabling a few adventurers to cheat 

 the miserable aborigines living on this tract, for it cannot 

 be called trade where no competition is allowed. 



"I suppose there is no difference of opinion in the policy 

 of having these 500 miles settled as soon as possible, and, as 

 the lease will expire in a year or two, the Government may 

 immediately have the tract surveyed and marked off in lots 

 for location; taking care to retain the chief landing and 

 watering places in the harbours as public property. Some of 

 the west parts, I suppose, may be available for the purposes 

 of agriculture, but by far the greatest part being nothing 

 but granite, can only be valuable as fishing stands I think 

 half -league lots will not be too large for land of that descrip- 

 tion. Some of the lots will be taken up immediately, and in 

 due time every place where a boat can be secured will be 

 settled. In a maritime point of view, were these parts set- 

 tled, it would be highly beneficial to the commerce of the St. 

 Lawrence, while, as a source of produce for export, it would 

 add considerably to the trade and wealth of the Province. " 



ROBERTSON DESCRIBED BY ABBE FERLAND. 



The Abbe Ferland has left us an interesting picture of 

 Samuel Robertson, the author of the lines describing the seal 

 fishery of the North Shore, as he was at the time he visited 

 it in 1858. Robertson was then still living. "A Scotchman 

 by birth," says Ferland, "Robertson brought to bear upon 

 his business the intelligence and the perseverance which dis- 

 tinguished his countrymen." It was Adam Lymburner, the 

 old Quebec merchant, who assisted Robertson to establish 



