63 



the great naval station of the British government. At the peace of 

 178-3, Nova Scotia became the home of many thousands of American 

 loyahsts, who, under the policy adopted by the winners in the strife, 

 were compelled to abandon their native hind. M;iny of them were 

 persons of elevated moral (juahties, of high posili(jiis in society, and of 

 great spirit nnd enterprise; several were natives of Massuciiusetts, and 

 graduates of Harvard University. Others had held prominent rank in 

 New York and New Jersey. From this period, w^e m;iy date a cliange 

 in the morals of tlie colon}^ and note a partial attention to the fisheries. 



Omitting the few fraguientary accounts that are to be found scattered 

 through the records which I have examined, we come at once to con- 

 sider this branch of industry as it exists in our own time. And, singu- 

 lar to remark, attention to the fisheries is still partial. No American 

 visits Nova Scotia without being amazed at the apathy which prevails 

 among the people, and without "calculating" the ad vantnges which 

 they enjo}-, but will not improve. Almost every sheet of water swarms 

 with cod, pollock, salmon, mackerel, herring, and alewives ; while the 

 shores abound in rocks and other places suitable for drying, and in the 

 materials required f(>r " flakes and stages." The coasts are every- 

 where indented with harbors, rivers, coves, and bays, which have a 

 ready connnunication with the waters of the interior; scarcely any part 

 of which — such is the curious freak of nature — is more than thirty 

 miles distant from navigation. The proximity of the fishing grounds 

 to the land, and to the homes of the fishermen, — the use that can be 

 made of seines and nets in the mackerel fishery, — the saving of capital 

 in building, equipping, and manning vessels, — the ease and safety which 

 attend every operation, combine to render Nova Scotia the most valua- 

 ble part of British America, and probably of the world, for catching, 

 curing, and shipping the productions of the sea. 



Yet the colonists "look on and complain of us. Tliey will neither fish 

 themselves nor allow us to do so. In the words of a late official report 

 on the "Fisheries of Nova Scotia," "From seven to eight hundred 

 [American] vessels are said annually to pass through the Gut of Canso, 

 which usually return home with large cargoes taken at our very doors. 

 There is ahrai/s a great deal said about their encroach mcnts^ and ive are apt 

 to blame them tlait our fisheries are iwt more j^roductivc than they are, and, 

 instead of engaging all our energies to corny ete loith them, iveare cmployi/ig a 

 host ofrecenue cutters, ^'c, to drire them from our shores. Everybody must 

 see that the Americans are ])laced under many disadvantages for prose- 

 cuting the fisheries in British waters, and that if jfrojnr enterprise were 

 tmploijed, our atlvantageous position irou/d enable us not only to compete ivith 

 them successfully, but also to drive them from our shores by underselling them 

 in thir own markets. But we find that they almost entirely monopo- 

 lize our deep-sea fishery, while ive look idly on and grumble at their suc- 

 cess.'' This covers the whole ground ; and coming, as it docs, from the 

 pen of a (•«)lonial official, is conclusive. 



.Judge Ilaliburlon, in his edbrts to rouse his fellow-colonists from their 

 letliarLjy, adopting as his motto, that 



"Tin- chccvfiil sfi>,'i\ when sulciiiii (lictiites Lil, 

 CuuccaU lliii iiioiivl cmiusol iu u Ink'," 



