THE COD AND COD-FISBERT 289 



thousand miles of coast. It is conceivable that the codfish 

 host is so evenly balanced against the host of its natural 

 sea-water enemies that even the small human inroad on 

 the numbers, especially on the numbers of females, may in 

 time produce a sensible thinning out of the shoals. But 

 we have as yet no good proof that this is the case. The 

 fish are protected from man by the long winter months; 

 from November to June, or even July, they are safe from 

 that enemy at least, for the ice shuts man out from the sea. 

 Those places where the largest catches were made years 

 ago are still usually the best berths, e.g. Griffin's Harbour. 

 That fact seems significant, for, in some measure like the 

 salmon, the cod is a local fish and tends to return, year after 

 year, to the section of the coast where he was born. It 

 follows, therefore, that, if man were causing a diminution 

 in the numbers of the cod, the best berths of former times 

 would be less likely to be the best berths now. Though the 

 herring and mackerel have largely disappeared from the 

 Labrador coast during the last half century, they have 

 certainly not been exterminated by fishermen. The 

 quantities taken of these two fish have been far too small 

 to effect that result. The ancient fishery off Yarmouth, 

 England, has taken ten thousand times more herring than 

 have ever been captured on the Labrador, yet the annual 

 taking off the English coast is still remarkable. 



However, the majority of Labrador fishermen think that 

 the cod are diminishing in numbers along the whole coast. 

 They refer to the partial or complete abandonment of the 

 northern summer stations at Windsor Harbour, Fanny's 

 Harbour, Aillik, Long Tickle, etc., where the industry once 

 flourished. Other arguments run to the effect that the 



