MR. J. a. BOURINOT 



ON 



CANADA'S MARINE AND FISHEEII^. 



-•o^ 



AT the usual monthly meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, held at the 

 rooms of the Society of Arts on February 4— the President, Hia 

 Grace the Duke of Manchester, in the chair — 



Mr. J. G. Bourinot, of the Senate, Canada, read a paper on " Canada's 

 Marine and Fisheries " : — 



He said : No country in the world possesses more admirable facilities for 

 the prosecution of all branches of maritime enterprise than the dominion of 

 Canada. Looking to the eastward, we see the provinces of Xcvv Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia, with an extensive line of sea-coaat, indented, especially in 

 the case of the latter, with bays and harbours offering every possible induce- 

 ment to commerce. Still further to the east lies the island of Newfound- 

 land, the Prima or Buena Vista of the early navigators in the verj'^ midst of 

 the finest fishery of the Continent, and destined ere long to form a part of 

 the Confederation, and become the head-quarters of an immense trade. As 

 one great island forms the eastern barrier, so another, smaller in extent, but 

 equally important in a maritime point of view, defends the approaches ro 

 the Pacific coast of the dominion. While the eastern and western extremi- 

 ties of Canada are washed by two oceans — the one the road to Asia, tiie 

 other to Europe— nature has given her a system of internal communicatiofls 

 unrivalled even by the Republic on her borders. The St. Lawrence runs 

 through a large portion of her most valuable, and at present most populous, 

 territory, and carries to the ocean the tribute of the great Jakes and the 

 noble rivers that water the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Both Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick possess numerous rivers, some of them of verv 

 considerable length and magnitude, and connecting the most inland coun- 

 ties with the sea-board. By energetically availing themselves of the<e 

 natural advantages, the people of British North America have been able in 

 the course of a very few years to attain a commercial position which ii 

 most creditable to their industry and enterprise. 

 The people who own this immense atretch of country extending from 



