FISHERIES OP THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 157 



an old dog-hood and five or six men had lasted for an hour, 

 and sometimes a hunter is fearfully torn, and even killed, 

 in the encounter. 



In illustration of the enormous quantities of herring 

 which were taken off the North Shore, Abbe Ferland men- 

 tions the fact that at Gros Mecatina he saw four to five hun- 

 dred barrels of them captured at one haul of a seine. 



The Abbe also described the killing of a large sulphur- 

 bottom whale which he saw towed into Tabatiere. It had 

 been killed from a schooner by Captain Coffin with a single 

 blow of the lance and was eighty feet in length. It was ex- 

 pected to furnish eighty barrels of oil, which was then sel- 

 ling at $12.00 to $16.00 per barrel. 



At the time of Abbe Ferland 's visit, five or six whaling 

 vessels frequented the Labrador coast. The captains and 

 first officers of these boats belonged to Gaspe, and were the 

 second generation of these hardy men who had been engaged 

 in the hazardous industry for sixty years before. Their ves- 

 sels were large and strong schooners, capable of riding out 

 a heavy storm, and carried with them, suspended at their 

 sides, two whaling boats ready to be launched at the first 

 view of a whale. When the waves were high it was some- 

 times necessary to abandon the whale which may have been 

 killed, for fear that its great weight would cause the loss of 

 the schooner. Before sending it adrift, it was usual to fasten 

 a cable round its body and to attach the other end to a buoy, 

 to assist in finding it again. Notwithstanding this precaution, 

 it often happened that the whale was lost through the break- 

 ing of the cable in storms, or through drifting away beyond 

 recovery. 



FISHERIES PROTECTION SERVICE. 



In 1852 Dr. Pierre Fortin was appointed in charge of a 

 new service known as that of "Fisheries Protection." He 

 was given command of an armed steamer the Doris, which 

 was afterwards replaced by the armed schooner La Can- 

 adienne. In the latter mentioned vessel he was wrecked 



