LABRADOR AND GULF OF SAINT LAWRENCE COD FISHERIES. 137 



Nain. They may return in general by the 10th to the 20th of September to Southern Labrador 

 rooms, or even to their homes, with full fares of green fish. 



" The extremities of many of the deep fiords from Cape Harrison to Ukkasiksalik, or Freestone 

 Point, a distance in an air line of 120 miles, contain timber fit for spars, for the construction of 

 ' fore-and-afters,' and for all ordinary building purposes. The climate there, namely, at the bot- 

 tom of many of these deep fiords, permits of the cultivation of potatoes and other garden vegeta- 

 bles. Between Aillik and Ukkasiksalik there are at present about sixty resident settlers in the 

 deep fiords, most of whom have been in the service of the Hudson Bay Company or the fishing 

 firms already named, and some of them are married to Eskimo women. 



" There are several other points of great interest in regard to the Northern Labrador which 

 are worthy of notice, but the details would swell this paper to dimensions far exceeding those of 

 a brief descriptive outline sketch of a comparatively new field for that kind of enterprise and 

 industry in which Newfoundland is so distinguished, and from which she annually derives so much 

 wealth. 



" The expansion and preservation of her fishing grounds for the use of her own people appears 

 to claim, however, thoughtful and liberal consideration, and not only from those who may profit 

 by the industry, but from those also who may be able to assist in lessening the difficulties with 

 which it is beset, in ameliorating the hardships inseparable from its pursuit, and -in aiding the 

 development of the resources of the vast area it may yet be made to occupy."* 



The fishing grounds in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence frequented by the vessels of the United 

 States were chiefly south of the line of Cape Ray and Cape Gaspe. In the spring the vessels have 

 of late years fished principally on the east and north coasts of Cape Breton, and in former years 

 there was a great deal of spring and summer fishing about the Magdalen Islands, but these grounds 

 have been but little frequented since the introduction of trawl fishing. Later in the season 

 fishing is carried on about Bradley Bank, Orphan Bank, Miscou Flat, off the mouth of Bay 

 Chaleur, and on Pigeon-Hill Ground, lying along the coast between Shippegan Island and Mir- 

 amichi. More or less fishing is carried on in other parts of the Bay of Saint Lawrence, as it is 

 called, "by our fishermen, including that part of the Gulf between Cape North and Cape Gaspe\ 



3. THE FISHERMEN. 



These fisheries were carried on at a time when all the fishermen of the United States were 

 native born. At present there is nothing particularly distinctive about the men in this fleet. A 

 large percentage of the Provincetown schooners fishing in the Gulf of -Saint Lawrence hire part of 

 their crews on the Nova Scotia coast. 



4. THE VESSELS. 



The vessels are, with the exception of a few Gloucester vessels which make one trip to Cape 

 North in the spring, among the oldest in the off-shore fishing fleet. They are generally employed 

 only in the summer, and are equipped in the old-fashioned way. The arrangement of decks and 

 hold is much the same as that on the Grand Bankers. They carry no ballast, excepting the salt 

 which is to be used in curing the fish. Some of the Provincetown vessels carry on deck large 

 tierces, such as are used on the whaling-vessels for oil. In these the fish are "struck" or pickled 

 in brine previous to stowing away in the hold. 



The vessels of the Labrador fleet always carried four or five boats of the pattern now generally 



* H. T. Hind. The Effect of .the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of 

 British North America. 1877. Part II, pp. 68, 69. 



