FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 155 



called, for Kegashka, Natashquan and Esquimaux Point, and 

 that every year others were leaving to join them. 1 



Mr. W. S. Wallace, however, believes that the squatters 

 from the Magdalen Islands on the North Shore did not exceed 

 eighty families. 2 



The Messrs. LaPerelle, the heads of one of the large 

 Jersey fishing establishments had already opened a post at 

 Natashquan and w r ere furnishing employment to some thirty 

 men from Berthier, and other points on the South Shore prior 

 to Abbe Ferland's visit. These men fished on commission. 

 They were boarded and supplied with fishing boats (berges) 

 by the firm and were paid a certain percentage on each hun- 

 dred of cod caught by them and landed on the shore. 



In the early days of each succeeding spring, these pioneer 

 settlers on the North Shore were accustomed to reap a plenti- 

 ful harvest from their seal hunts on the ice floes of the Gulf. 

 Though extremely dangerous, this occupation was most ex- 

 citing and exhilarating. 



In the very year of Abbe Ferland's visit, two schooners 

 set out from Natashquan in the month of April on the usual 

 sealing expedition. Each carried a crew of sixteen men. 

 one from each of as many families. After sailing for sixty 

 miles, they saw in front of them large fields of ice, literally 

 covered with seals. Having moored their vessels to the ice 

 field, it was only the work of a few minutes to climb on to it 

 and to commence their destructive operations. Armed only 

 with a thick stick, they approached the nearest seals, which 

 were easily killed by a single blow over the nose. Care has 

 to be taken in these seal hunts to dispatch the animals near- 

 est to the edge of the ice, for if any of these take to the 

 water, the remainder of the herd endeavour to wobble after 

 them. So long, however, as the seals in front remain still, 

 on the ice, whether in life or death, those behind them remain 

 practically motionless, and thus a whole herd may often be- 



i Promenades dans le Golfe Saint-Laurent, par Faucher de St. 

 Maurice. Quebec, 1874. 



2 Introduction to Grenfell's Labrador. New York, 1910, p. 31. 



