16 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



capelin make their appearance, and the shoal of cod found 

 following them has been termed the "capelin school'* by 

 fishermen. In July the body of cod on the ground is 

 called the "squid school," since the fish no longer take 

 the herring and capelin offered them for bait, but are 

 attracted by the quantities of squid that arrive at this 

 time. Hand-liners report seeing the cod in large numbers 

 lazily swimming along in the clear shoal water of Virgin 

 Eocks and refusing to touch hooks baited with herring. 



Before any permanent French or English settlements 

 had been made in America the Grand Bank of Newfound- 

 land was frequented by fishing vessels from France, 

 Portugal, Spain and England. France led in these New- 

 foundland fisheries, making regular voyages as early as 

 1504. The first accounts of Portugal, Spain and England 

 are in 1517, when there were fifty vessels of all sorts at 

 Newfoundland. Sixty years later the number of vessels 

 had increased to 315. For more than four centuries, dur- 

 ing which time the fishing has been well nigh continuous in 

 its season, the Grand Bank of Newfoundland has been 

 the principal source of supply of the codfish to American 

 and European consumers. Since the close of the Civil 

 War the halibut fishery, also, has been carried on success- 

 fully by American fishermen. It would be difficult to find 

 in the whole world an equivalent area of the ocean bed 

 which equals in historic interest and economic importance 

 the Grand Bank of Newfoundland. 



LONG ISLAND TO FLORIDA. 



The coast of the Atlantic from Montauk Point, Long 

 Island, to Cape Florida, is in striking contrast to that 

 described above. North of the parallel of 41 the coast is 

 irregular and rocky, scarred by the ice of the glacial 

 epoch; to the south it is unbroken and sandy. In one sec- 



