1738 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



him what will be found from page 211 to page 218 of his "Duplicate 

 Letters. 77 A few citations will not be out of place here : 



The shores, the creeks, the inlets of the Bay of Fundy, the Bay of Chaleurs, and the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Straits of Belleisle, and the Coast of Labrador, appear to have 

 been designed by the God of nature as the great ovariuin of fish the inexhaustible re- 

 pository of this species of food, not only for the supply of the American, but of the Euro- 

 pean continent. At the proper season to catch them in endless abundance, little more of 

 effort is needed than to bait the hook and pull the line, and occasionally even this is not ne- 

 cessary. In clear weather, near the shores, myriads are visible, and the strand is at times 

 almost literally paved with them. 



The provincials had become highly alarmed at the expansion of this fishery and trade ; 

 jealous of its progress and clamorous at its endurance ; they, therefore, of late years, have 

 repeatedly memorialized the government in England, respecting the fisheries carried on by 

 the Americans, while the whole body of Scottish adventurers, whose trade both in imports 

 and exports, and control over the inhabitants, it curtailed, have turned out in full cry and 

 joined the chorus of the colonial governments in a crusade against the encroachments of the 

 infidels, the disbelievers in the divine authority of kings, or the rights of the provinces, and 

 have pursued their objects so assiduously that, at their own expense, as I am informed from 

 a respectable source, in the year 1807 or '8, they stationed a watchman in some favorable posi- 

 tion near the Straits of Canso to count the number of American vessels which passed those straits 

 an thit employment, who returned nine hundred and thirty-eight as the number actually ascer- 

 tained by HIM to have passed, and doubtless many others, during the night or in stormy or thick 

 ictather, escaped his observation ; and some of these aggressors have distinctly looked forward 

 with gratification to a state of war as a desirable occurrence, which would, by its existence, 

 annul existing treaty stipulations, so injurious, as they contend, to their interests and those 

 of the nation. 



The coast and Labrador fisheries are prosecuted in vessels from 40 to 120 tons burden, 

 carrying a number or men, according to their respective sizes, in about the same proportion 

 a- the vessels on the Bank fishery. They commence their voyages in May, and get on the 

 fishing-ground about the first of June, before which time bait cannot be obtained. This 

 bait is furnished by a small species of fish called caplin, which strrke inshore at that time, 

 and are followed by immense shoals of codfish which feed upon them. Each vessel selects her 

 own fishing-ground, along the coast of the Bay of Chaleurs, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the 

 Straits of lielleisle, the coast of Labrador, even as far as Cumberland Island, and the entrance 

 of Mini -ion's Bay, thus improving a fishing-grounJ reaching in extent from the 45th to the 

 Gtth degree of north latitude. 



In choosing their situation, the fishermen generally seek some sheltered and safe harbor 



or cove, where they anchor in about sir, or seven fathoms water, unbend their sails, stow 



them below, and literally making themselves at home, dismantle and convert their vessels 



into habitations at least as durable as those of the ancient Scythians. They then cast a net 



over the stern of the vessel, in which a sufficient number of caplin are soon caught to 



supply them with bait from day to day. Each vessel is furnished with four or five liaht boats, 



according to their size and number of men, each boat requiring two men. They leave the 



vessel early in the morning, and seek the best or sufficiently good spot for fishing, which is 



frequently found within a few rods of their vessels, and very rarely more than one or two 



miU$ dittunt from them, where they haul the fish as fast as they can pull their lines, and 



onetimes, it is said, the fish have been so abundant as to be gaffed or scooped into the boats 



tiout even a hook or line ; and the fishermen also say that the codfish have been known 



to pursue the caplin iti such quantities and with such voracity as to run in large numbers 



quite out of water onto the shores. The boats return to the vessels about nine o'clock in 



the morning, at breakfast, put their fish on board, salt and split them : and after having 



! several days, by which time the salt lias been sufficiently struck in the fish first 



rht, they carry them on shore and spread and dry them on the rocks or temporary flakes. 



iitinc is followed every day, with the addition of attending to such as have been 



spread and carrying on board and stowing away those that have become sufficiently cured, 



filled with dried fish, fit for an immediate market, which is generally the 



ic middle or la*t of .luqust, and with which she then proceeds immediately to 



urns to the I'nited States; and this fish thus caught and cured is esteemed 



is brought to market, and for several years previous to that of 180e> was com- 



i thrtc-fuurth parts of all the dried fish exported from the United States. 



The following .statements, to be found on page 219 of the work, were 

 famished to Mr. Adams by a person whom he qualifies as a very re- 

 wpectable merchant, who dates his letter Boston, May 20, 1815 : 



My calculation is, that there were employed in the Bank, Labrador and Bay fisheries, the 



tx)ve mentioned, 1,932 vessels yearly, viz, 584 to the Banks, and 648 to the bay and 



think the 581 hankers may be put down 36,540 tou., navigated by 4,627 men 



boys (each vessel carrying one boy) ; they take and cure, annually, 510,700 quintals of 



