314 LABRADOR 



merit has followed in Labrador itself, though trapping fur- 

 bearing animals is there naturally the second string to the 

 settler's bow. 



Few fishermen grow rich. Some, however, are able to 

 put by considerable sums, and there are as happy and com- 

 fortably provided families among our fisherfolk as can be 

 found among any artisan class in the world. The very 

 nature of the calling begets a healthy body, a simple 

 nature, and an easily contented mind. Unaccustomed to 

 luxuries, the lack of material wealth causes no vain regrets. 

 Inured as they are to privations, the smallest acquisition 

 gives pleasure. They may not aspire to have servants 

 under them ; they are their own masters at least throughout 

 their working days. They have an interest in and love 

 for their occupation, the like of which one can scarcely 

 credit to a factory hand, who is always making a piece 

 of a complicated whole, and never finishing a job, or 

 can credit to a clerk on a high stool everlastingly add- 

 ing up figures. The men love their calling, and with 

 sound reason. For sheer love of it, I know several, who, 

 after trying Canada or the United States, have returned 

 eventually to their old occupation as being "a far better 

 job." In what other calling are poor, working, unedu- 

 cated men so able to enjoy the luxury of independence, the 

 prize which riches might seem able to purchase for the 

 wealthy only, and yet to which many rich men never in 

 any way attain ! 



When the French Revolution began, the fishers of cod 

 on the Newfoundland-Labrador shores were already estab- 

 lished in their more prosaic industry. In 1812 the catch 

 of fish on the Labrador and French shore combined is 



