THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 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 
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