THE WHALE FISHERY. 217 



"The extent to which the whale fishery is carried ou within the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by 

 vessels from Newfoundland is very little known, nor is its value appreciated. The Jersey houses 

 who have fishing establishments in Gaspe" also fit out vessels for this fishery, which cruise about 

 Anticosti and the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence. Mr. MacGregor, in an official report to 

 the Board of Trade, thus describes this fishery: 



'"The whales caught in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence are those called humpbacks, which yield 

 on an average about 3 tons of oil, some having been taken 70 feet long, which produced 8 tons. 

 The mode of taking them is somewhat different from that followed by the Greenland fishers; and 

 the Gasp6 fishermen first acquired an acquaintance with it from the people of Nantucket. An 

 active man, accustomed to boats and schooners, may become fully acquainted with everything 

 connected with this fishery in one season. The vessels adapted for this purpose are schooners 

 from 70 to 80 tons burden, manned with a crew of eight men, including the master. Each 

 schooner requires two boats, about 20 feet long, built narrow and sharp, and with pink-sterns; 

 and 220 fathoms of line are necessary to each boat, with spare harpoons and lances. The men 

 row towards the whale, and when they are very near use paddles, which make less noise than oars. 

 Whales are .sometimes taken in fifteen minutes after they are struck with the harpoon. The Gasps' 

 fishermen never go out in quest of them until some of the smaller ones, which enter tbe bay 

 about the beginning of June, appear; these swim too fast to be easily harpooned, and are not, 

 besides, worth the trouble. The large whales are taken off the entrance of Gasp6 Bay, on each 

 side of the island of Anticosti, and up the river Saint Lawrence as far as Bic.' 



" Mr. Bouchette, in his work on Lower Canada, represents the whale fishery of the Gulf as 

 meriting the attention of the legislature, and needing encouragement, by which, he says, the 

 number of vessels employed would be considerably increased, and this important branch of busi- 

 nets would be as effectually carried ou by the hardy inhabitants of Gaspe" as to compete, in some 

 degree, if not rival, that of the Americans, who were, at the time Mr. Bouchette wrote, almost in 

 the exclusive enjoyment of it, and carried on their enterprising fisheries in the very mouths of the 

 bays and harbors of Lower Canada. 



" Sir Richard Bonnycastle, in his work entitled ' Newfoundland in 1842,' says, ' The coast and 

 Gulf whale fishery is now being of much value to Newfoundland.' Sir Richard states that the 

 vessels employed are large schooners, with crews of ten men each ; that the fishery is pursued 

 during the whole of the summer mouths along the coast of Labrador, and in and through the 

 Straits of Belle Isle, and that whales of all sizes are taken, from the smallest ' finner' up to the 

 largest inysticetus, or great common oil whale of the northern ocean, which occasionally visits these 

 regions. 



"It is believed that hitherto no. attempt has been made by the people of New Brunswick to 

 enter into this whale fishery, and it is a very proper subject for inquiry, whether it might not be 

 profitably conducted by New Brunswick vessels, and the active and enterprising fishermen of the 

 Bay of Chaleur, who aie equally well placed for carrying it on as their hardy comrades on the 

 Gasp6 side of the bay." 



WHALE FISHERY OF GERMANY. 



Bremen and some other German ports were formerly largely interested in the whale fishery. 

 An excellent historical review of this industry is given by Dr. Lindemau, in his work entitled 

 " Die arktische Fischerei der deutscheu Seestadte, 1620-1868." 



