254 



THE OCEAN RIVER 



part unaware of its influence once they had come north of the 

 Florida Straits. The years of this century saw the Spanish 

 power broken with a rise of French and Dutch sea power, com- 

 bined with the domination of the British in the Caribbean, 



The beneficial mixing of Labrador Current and Gulf Streann waters over the 

 Grand Banks. 



due largely to the great reservoir of trained and tough seadogs 

 bred in the rough battle of the Newfoundland fisheries. 



Before going into the further development of the Codfish 

 Frontier as a new offshoot of the English race, we might take 

 up briefly the course of the explorations from 1 500 on — when 

 European governments were obsessed with the notion that a 

 waterway could be found either directly through the barrier of 



