454 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



tries. Therefore a solution which seems on its face to be 

 perfectly just and rational has always come eventually to 

 be abandoned as impracticable. 



The payment of a lump sum or an annual license tax to 

 Canada has at times been considered as a hopeful adjust- 

 ment of the question, but this means of settlement has 

 always met with a determined opposition from the agricul- 

 tural classes throughout the country. 



Tims it is that, abounding in difficulties, aggravated by 

 frequent encounters of the fishermen, especially during 

 periods of ill feeling between England and the United States, 

 complicated by private claims and confused by numerous 

 minor issues, the fishery question has remained an unsolved 

 problem for nearly a century and a quarter. 



The most valuable food fishes inhabit the cold waters of 

 northern seas. A great ocean river, having its origin in the 

 polar seas, and known as the " Labrador Current," sweeps 

 to the south along the entire shore of British America, past 

 Newfoundland, and down the New England coast. Round- 

 ing Cape Cod, and following thence a southern course, it 

 plunges downward, to pass beneath the warmer and lighter 

 waters of the Gulf Stream, and is finally lost in the abyssal 

 depths of the middle Atlantic. The presence of this body 

 of cold water near the coast greatly influences the climate of 

 Labrador and Newfoundland, rendering their shores bleak 

 and desolate, while it prolongs the rigorous winters of New 

 England. As a seeming recompense for so much of cheerless 

 cold and gloom, it brings to these maritime provinces the 

 conditions necessary for a marvellous wealth of marine life, 

 which has proved of almost incalculable value to their in- 

 habitants. The coastal waters of these provinces teem with 

 cod, herring, mackerel, and a variety of other fish of great 

 commercial value. 



Of the various kinds of food fish taken in these waters, 

 the first in importance is the cod, which remarkable fish ex- 



