212 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



Washington, in 187 1, which resembled the Treaty of 1854, 



except that it curtailed the right of fishing on the shores of 



New England.^ Its lists of free imports included sea-fish and 



fish-oil but excluded other articles, and a Commission was 



authorized to assess the difi'erence in value between the 



privileges accorded to the United States, and those accorded 



(the Halt- to the British colonies by the Treaty. This Commission, 



fax Com- which is known as the Halifax Commission," assessed the 

 mission, ,.„ ^ , ^ V , . , 1 , . 1 



1876, difference at $5,500,000, (£1,045,000), which was duly paid 



ansing out by the United States to England, and by England to Canada 



second and Newfoundland ; and the United States terminated the 



Treaty), second Treaty in January, 1886, in the same way as it had 



terminated the first Treaty. Long before its termination, 



indeed before the Halifax Commission began to sit, the 



character of the herring fishery had been changing, the political 



horizon was darkening, and this fish of evil omen was baulking 



the efforts after peace inspired by the cod. Before discussing 



these changes we must follow the further flow of people along 



the southern shore from east to west, and along the western 



shore from south to north, between 1818 and 1857. 



This west- These westward movements proceeded in silence without 



^ration friction, like the movements of migrant birds or fish. The 



went on rush towards the new market from the east pushed those 



^o^Cape ^ who were already there still further west, or else the newcomers 



A'flj/, near passed through the full places into the empty places which 



fishin^coti- were beyond. No one went inland; and the human stream 



thmed percolated every chink and cranny of the coast. The Bay 



D'Espoir, which was the extreme western limit of the Electoral 



Districts,^ that is to say, of civilization between 1832 and 



1854, was reached and passed. In 1857 a missioner described 



the coast between Fortune Bay and Cape La Hune (forty 



miles west of Bay D'Espoir) as a ' coast of about 1 50 miles 



1 N. of lat. 39" only. 



2 Accounts and Papers, 1878, vol. Ixxx (c. 2056), contains the 

 Halifax Commission's Proceedings. 



3 Bonne Bay (D'Espoir Bay). 



during 

 winter 



