FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 143 



who had lived for eight years at Etamamiou, by Michel Blais, 

 by Magloire Gaumont, who had resided on the coast from 

 1834 to 1845, and by Louis Gaumont, who resided there from 

 1842 to 1844. 



Abbe Ferland reported that Mr. Daniel Cronyn, one of 

 the richest merchants of Halifax, had made a large fortune 

 on the Labrador coast. He was rather a trader than a fisher- 

 man, however, sailing from post to post in his schooner, selling 

 his merchandise of every kind and receiving in exchange the 

 salmon, the oil, the seal skins, and the rich furs which were 

 taken about the coasts. The Abbe regretted the fact that the 

 merchants of Quebec had been less successful on the North 

 Shore. He mentioned amongst other Quebecers, Mr. Victor 

 Hamel, who had carried on an extensive trade with the people 

 of Labrador, but without much financial success. 



CONDITIONS IN 1849. 



Mr. Moses H. Perley, in a report on the fisheries of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, which was laid before the House of 

 Assembly in New Brunswick in 1849, gave the following in- 

 teresting account of the then condition of the fisheries off the 

 coasts of Lower Canada: "From seven to eight hundred sail 

 of American fishing vessels enter the Gulf of Saint Lawrence 

 annually; and scattering over the whole of its wide extent, 

 with little heed of the limits to which they are restricted by 

 Treaty, pursue their business unmolested, and but rarely leave 

 their stations without full and valuable fares. 



"The Jersey merchants also prosecute these fisheries 

 with great zeal and assiduity, and, as it is believed, with much 

 profit. They have permanent establishments and fishing 

 stations in Gaspe, Labrador, and Newfoundland, and three 

 or more establishments in New Brunswick; but they by no 

 means confine themselves to any particular locality. They 

 employ upwards of one hundred vessels almost exclusively 

 in carrying the rich products of the deep to various foreign 



