FISH 199 



eastern Newfoundland. Ever since 1793^ the sailors of 

 Newfoundland might be seen every March driving their ships 

 in amongst the ice-floes, leaping out on to the ice, and 

 doing infant seals, some three weeks old, to death, by 

 thousands at a time, while basking in the sun. The trade 

 was less exposed to chance, although men's lives were more 

 exposed to risk. Danger added zest to the pursuit, and 

 a boy who had once been through it was no longer a boy 

 but a man. He had won his spurs, so to speak. It was 

 partly^ to meet this demand for sealers, and partly too to exploit 

 the Grand Banks, which had hitherto been exploited by ships 

 which came from the old country, that the ships of 1 804 were 

 built.^ Sealing and banking were just compatible ; for seal- 

 ing began at the end of February and ended in May, and is 

 now limited by law to begin on March 10 and to end 

 with the end of the first trip and before May. May, however, 

 was somewhat late for the Banks; bait had to be caught, 

 and there were places nearer home where bait might be caught, 

 and fish might be caught and cured. The war had broken out, 

 and the French had deserted the Treaty shore. So after seal- 

 ing, men took their ships thither in June. Banking suffered 

 because the northern fisheries were more compatible than 

 banking with sealing. Peace returned in 18 15, and with it 

 the French returned to the Treaty shore. The Newfound- 

 landers, loath to change their habits, went a little further 

 north with their ships from June to October; and the scene 

 of the sequel to sealing was shifted to Labrador. 



The ship-fishery off eastern Labrador was a substitute for and for the 

 the ship-fishery on the Treaty shore and on the Banks, and Lah'^'^doj- 

 its history was a repetition of the history of Newfoundland in 

 miniature. The peace of 1763 created it, and the peace of 

 1 815 tripled it. In 1828 the only Colonial sea-going ships 



1 See J. Bland's letter cited by Prowse, pp. 419, 420; Sir G. Le 

 Marchant's Report^ 1847-8, vol. xlvi, p. 24, No. 1005. 



2 Ante, p. 176. 



