THE SALMON-FISHERY 350 
As long ago as 1774, at any rate, the Alexis River, and 
soon after the Eagle and other grand rivers of Sandwich 
Bay, were completely net-barred. Of late years the “bay- 
men,” or livyeres, have been slowly obliged, owing to the 
increasing scarcity of the salmon and to the declining 
price of salt salmon in the market, to abandon this fishery 
and try for cod. 
The transition stage is a time of great misery for the poor 
settlers. Their nets, small boats, outfit, and habits are all 
_ calculated for the peaceful fishery in the bays; for the 
rougher fishery outside they have neither gear, education, 
or inclination. Many try to do both. But the cod arrive 
on the coast before the salmon take to the rivers, and these 
men are very apt to make a blank year, entailing great pri- 
vations on their own and other families. 
Whether man can decrease the number of cod or herring 
in the deep sea is uncertain, but that by netting rivers you 
can empty them of salmon, is a well-ascertained fact. The 
former great abundance of this fish on the Labrador is 
well emphasized in the following few extracts from the 
journals of the inimitable Major Cartwright in 1775-1785. 
In July, 1775, he writes of the Eagle River: ‘‘We have 
140 tierce (casks) ashore, but have had to take up two nets, 
as fish get in too fast.” ‘‘The big pool is so full of salmon, 
you could not fire a ball into it without injuring some.” 
Even the animals seemed to know the wonders of this river, 
which must have been almost as well stocked as the Fraser 
River in British Columbia. Cartwright describes “‘remains 
of thousands of salmon killed by white bears round the 
pool.” His famous description of some fourteen white 
and black bears that he saw fishing in the pool is quite 
