66 VALUE OF THE FISHERIES. 



waters, which annually yield rich harvests to its bold and 

 experienced fishermen. Especially do they furnish an 

 apparently inexhaustible resource in their supplies of cod; 

 and, accordingly, the cod-fishery employs the greater num- 

 ber of the population. Some idea of its value may be 

 gained from the fact that the annual average export for the 

 last twenty years has amounted to one million quintals, or 

 hundredweights, realizing fully 900,000. But even these 

 figures do not sufficiently illustrate its extent, for they do 

 not include the quantity about 150,000 quintals used 

 every year in Newfoundland itself, nor the vast haul of 

 the French, Nova Scotians, Canadians, and Americans, 

 who constantly resort to the Newfoundland banks. Pro- 

 bably, the total would in this case rise to 1,650,000 

 quintals, equal in value to 1,485,000. And then we 

 must add the value of the oil extracted from the liver of 

 the cod-fish, which, estimating the yield at 1,250,000 gal- 

 lons, would be 200,000. 



Such figures may well astonish the reader ; but his as- 

 tonishment will increase when he is told that, notwith- 

 standing this enormous annual drain a drain which has 

 continued for upwards of two centuries the supply 

 seems inexhaustible ; and that while the whale and seal 

 fisheries have largely declined, while the herring-fishery 

 is subject to considerable variations, the cod-fishery shows 

 no symptoms of diminution, and annually responds with 

 recuperative energy to the demands made upon it. 



We have already glanced at the various processes em- 

 ployed in the capture of the cod. The Newfoundland 

 fishermen adopt the hook and line, the seine-net, the 

 bultow, and the American trap-net. 



The seine does not differ from that employed in other 



