NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 37 
kinds of fish away from the coast, as they do not like being 
knocked about and battered on the rocks by the waves. 
Fish are always more abundant in some localities than in 
others; their well-known voracity and the instinct of conserva- 
tion causing them to prefer those spots where small fish, mol- 
lusks, sand-lances, and crustaceans, most abound. Their move- 
ments and migrations are also governed by other natural causes, 
such as suitability of certain places for reproduction, and these 
favorable conditions not only present themselves near the shore, 
but also upon the banks of the high seas, in both of which it has 
been indubitably ascertained that the cod breeds. 
After their summer visit to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 
certain localities off shore, the cod seek the northern seas and 
the profound depths adjacent to the Newfoundland Banks. 
Cruising along shore in the busy midsummer, the rocks and 
the. water everywhere appear animate with life. Grampuses, 
whales, and predatory porpoises patrol the coast in quest of 
food, rolling their huge bodies up to the surface, blowing off 
small jets of water, and surging into the incoming schools of 
fish. Sly seals forage among the salmon nets, poking their 
round bullet-heads above the water in all directions, take a mo- 
mentary survey and then disappear. 
It is the breeding season for wild-fowl, and the outlying cliffs 
swarm with gannets, murrs, auks, puffins, gulls, sea-pigeons, and 
nameless birds. The air above and around these islands is filled 
with mvriads constantly hovering, and the whirr of their rapid 
circling flight sounds like the hum of a factory. To and from 
their feeding-grounds foraging parties constantly wing their 
_ pathless way; keen-eyed sentries patrol the topmost crags ; 
_ scouting parties and videttes, ever on the alert, wheel and hover 
about each approaching vessel, screaming at the intrusion. 
Bunches of eiders and shell-drakes float upon the waves, take 
_ wing when disturbed, and skim away to places more secure. 
In every little bight and bay fleets of vessels lie quietly at 
their moorings, with bait-seines triced up to the mast-heads to dry. 
i Moss-thatched cabins are scattered all over the granite boulders 
_ on shore, as if stranded there by a receding flood. Rude fishing- 
_ Stages cling to the. rocks on every side, supported on piles, the 
Fd 
