162 FISHERIES OP THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



"In a country like Canada," he said, "presenting so 

 many facilities and inducements to agricultural industry, 

 it is not surprising that her fisheries should attract little at- 

 tention excepting in particularly favorable localities, but they 

 are of more importance than is generally supposed, and the 

 enactments from time to time for their protection indicate 

 a sense of the danger of their destruction and the necessity 

 for their preservation: 



"In Lower Canada, by the census of 1851-2, the number 

 of barrels of fish cured was 80,306, of these, 63,932 barrels 

 were cured in the County of Gaspe. This quantity evidently 

 includes the dried cod fish of which each cwt. would be equal 

 to a little more than a barrel, 6,354 in Bonaventure, to which 

 should be added about 40,000 cwt. of dried fish, 6,423 in 

 Rimouski, and 1,466 in Kamouraska, showing the comparative 

 fishing advantages of these counties lying in the Gulf and 

 salt water portions of the River St. Lawrence. 



"In the County of Sherbrooke 970 barrels were cured, 

 in Saguenay 443, in St. Hyacinthe 165, and in Montmorency 

 156 barrels; leaving 397 as the total number cured in the 

 remaining twenty-eight Counties. 



"Apart from the fisheries of the sea board and Lower St. 

 Lawrence, the quantity of fish cured in Lower Canada is not 

 so great as might have been expected. 



"The products of the Salmon Fisheries of Lower Canada 

 have been steadily decreasing. The total number of barrels 

 of salmon taken on all the coasts of Canada in the Lower 

 St. Lawrence and the Gulf, including the Canadian Coast of 

 Labrador, during the year 1856 did not exceed 2,500 barrels. 

 The decrease in this branch of the fisheries has been very 

 great. To give a striking instance, the River St. Paul, on the 

 coast of Labrador, which at one time yielded fourteen hun- 

 dred barrels of salmon in a single year, now yields only nine- 

 ty barrels. 



"It is evident that if measures be not taken of a more 

 effective nature than any that have hitherto been adopted, 

 for its protection, this valuable branch of fishery will come 

 to an end. 



