154 NEWFOUNDLAND 



The total export of cod-fish by customs returns for the 

 past five years was as follows, showing an average annual 

 export of 1,322,466 quintals: — 



Season 1899-1900 ...... 1,300,622 



„ 1900-1901 1,233,107 



1901-1902 1,288,95s 



,, 1902-1903 1,429,274 



1903-1904 1,360,373 



The Grand Banks extend from Labrador southwards past 

 Newfoundland to the Massachusetts coast, a distance of over 

 1000 miles, and every year some 1200 vessels, carrying crews 

 of 20,000 fishermen, go out to battle with the surges as they 

 have done for the past four hundred years. The fisher- 

 men of all lands have to encounter the perils of the deep, 

 but none have to face the risks that the "bankers" do. 

 Their special dangers are swift liners, that steam full speed 

 through the fog, ice-bergs, ice-floes, chilling frosts, and 

 furious storms. The fishing- zone lies right in the track of 

 great liners plying between Europe and America, and many 

 a poor fisherman has lived to curse 



" Some damned liner's lights go by 

 Like a great hotel " ; 



whilst nearly all have some heartrending tale to tell of the 

 destruction of fishing craft of which he has been an eye- 

 witness. There is an ever-increasing record of sunken 

 ships, of frosts which overpower, and of dory crews driven 

 from their schooners by sudden tempests, and, during the 

 fishing season, hardly a week goes by without some tale of 

 misfortune. Of the method of fishing and the disasters which 

 overtake the ship I must quote a passage from one of Mr. 

 P. T. M'Grath's articles,^ which are full of interest and 

 accurate information. 



• St. John's Htrald, 28th August 1906. 



