AMBROSE ON ST. MARGARET S BAY FISHING GROUNDS. 33 



Art. IV. Some Observations on the Fishing Grounds and 

 Fish of St. Margaret's Bay, N. S. By John Ambrose: 



[Re id Jan. 8, 1866.] 



As a list of the fishes of St. Margaret's Bay, is a lengthy one, 

 I shall confine myself in this paper to an account qf some of those 

 salt water fishes, which form the staple export from this parish. 



In the first place it ayIII perhaps be necessary to give a general 

 idea of the fishing grounds, especially ofif the mouth of the Bay. 

 This I have obtained, and as far as possible, verified fi-om the 

 accounts of some of the most experienced and successful line-fisher- 

 men of Peggy's Cove and Dover. 



Leaving Peggy's Cove on a S.S.W. course, we first pass over a 

 " hard," i. e., rocky, sandy, and gravelly bottom, for a distance 

 of nearly half a mile, with a depth of fifteen fathoms, until we find 

 ourselves over a depth of thirty fathoms, with soft black muddy 

 bottom. This gulch extends in a line parallel with the coast, and 

 opens into a similar one running up the Bay. It is about fifty yards 

 wide, bounded on both sides by hard bottom, at an average depth 

 of thirty fathoms. This muddy ravine is the celebrated "Hospital," 

 where diseased codfish are found. Since my last account of this 

 place, I find on further enquiry, that hake in a healthy state fre- 

 quent it, as muddy bottom is the favourite feeding ground of that 

 fish. But cod abhor the mud bottoms, and are only found in such 

 localities when unable to go elsewhere. Healthy cod are caught at 

 each side of this gulch, but within it the cod are found to be " lo- 

 gics," (i. e., sick,) and wounded fish. As codfish will attack and 

 devour the helpless of their own kind, from the spawn up, a muddy 

 gulch not frequented by their strong and rapacious brethren, is 

 plainly a place of safety for the disabled, where by the simple and 

 monopathic method of giving a wide berth to all interested parties, 

 they hope for peace and convalescence, and wait patiently and hum- 

 bly for such food as chance or a passing fisherman may throw in 

 their way.* 



Crossing the smiling waters, over this dark abode of sickness, 

 want and pain, and finding our depth, from fifteen at the further 

 side gradually increasing to thirty fathoms, at the distance of about 



*There is another ''Hospital" with muddy bottom, well-known as the haunt of 

 sick cod, a short distance outside of Billing's Island, off Prospect. 



