330 



REVIEWS. 



[1855. 



Of the interior of Anticosti, our Author observes, that j\Ir. Corbet, 

 who has resided at the South West Point for ten years, and -who, in 

 his Tarious excursions, has seen more of the ishmd than any other 

 person, describes the soil to consist generally of " black, light soil, 

 clay and saud," and states that, " from the immense quantities of sea- 

 weed with which the shores abound, he believes the land could be made 

 to yield every description of farm produce. In the same statement he 

 refers to what he and Mr. Pope have accomplished at the South West 

 Point. The writer had, however, obtained a similar statement from 

 the son of Mr. Pope last autumn. At this spot, which Lieut. 

 Baddeley, R. E., who visited it in 1831, declared to be the most barren 

 and uninviting in the whole Lsland, Mr. Pope grew last year the finest 

 crop of oats, 300 bushels of the best potatoes, (the potato disease never 

 having reached the island), and every other vegetable in perfection 

 which is grown in Canada; and this he did upon a patch of land ad- 

 joining the bleak point where the light-house stands, where the soil 

 consists of a description of black peat resting upon the limestone. Mr. 

 Pope supposes, though he has never tried it, that wheat might be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated in the interior, which has never been exploited 

 beyond ten or twelve miles from the beach, along the banks of some of 

 the rivers, and then generally by hunters or fishermen ; ]>arties not 

 likely to look for or to care about agricultural resoiirces. How much, 

 therefoi-e, must still remain to be explored in an island 130 miles long 

 by nearly 40 broad ! Of vegetables, also, Mr. Pope could have disposed 

 of any quantity to ships bound to Quebec, which are often becalmed off 

 South West Point after a month or six weeks' voyage, with a prospect 

 of being nearly another month in reaching their destination. The 

 supplying ships under these circumstances, especially when conveying 

 cabin passengers and emigrants, may become a very profitable occu- 

 pation to the settler. Vegetables, meat, fish, soft-bread, &c., could be 

 easily taken off to vessels in boats, as they are at Portsmouth, Yar- 

 mouth, and a number of other ports in England, under circumstances 

 far less favorable, by bum-boats, the owners of which realize immense 

 profits. 



Mr. Morrison, a person well known in Quebec, who (having been 

 previously employed at Anticosti by the North West Company,) was 

 sent there about fifty years since, to explore a portion of the island for 

 the purpose of forming a settlement, after mentioning in his report the 

 excellency of the soil, and the timber which he found there, including 

 ash, large pine and tamarack, says : " I had a house erected on the 

 south side of the island, ai-ound which we made a clearance, and sowed 

 wheat, barley, and oats, all of which grew luxuriantly and ripened. 

 Vegetables and garden stufl's of every description grew remarkably 

 well, and came to as great perfection as any I have seen in Canada. 

 There is very good clay on the island, of which I made some bricks, 

 and built an oven, and whilst there I imported some cattle from Nova 

 Scotia, and found that they throve well." Why the explorations and 

 labors of Mr. Morrison led to no result at that time, is thus explained 

 in his statement, made in 1842, to the present proprietors of the 

 island: "After I returned to Quebec and made my report, Mr. Grant, 

 the then proprietor of the largest portion of Anticosti, at once came to 

 the determination of settling it, and offered to me the superintendenc'e. 

 During the winter of 1804, I engaged by his directions eighteen men, 

 intending to proceed with them to Anticosti in the spring, and to im- 

 mediately set about cutting a road across the island ; but, un- 

 fortunately, Mr. Grant died about that time, and the intention which 

 had been entertained of colonizing the island was abandoned, a cir- 

 cumstance much to be regretted." 



Copious as our extracts have already been, we regard the 

 subject and its object of sucb great importance and general in- 

 terest, tbat we offer no apology for adding the following in as 

 condensed a form as possible : 



While all parties consulted generally agree as to the timber, 

 and the nature of the soil, they also represent the climate to be 

 milder than at Quebec ; and as regards the degree of heat and 

 cold, much like that of Newfoundland, but not so subject to 

 fogs ; and that the navigation is open for about six weeks'longer 

 than at Quebec ; and further, that it is probable that, with 

 properly constructed and manned steamboats, or the boats so 

 favourably spoken of by Polar navigators, a communication 

 between the south-west point of the Island and the south shore 

 of the St. Lawrence, might occasionally be kept open during 



the whole winter, the ice never extending across, or blocking 

 up the whole of the channel. 



We now pass on to notice, with Mr. Ecche, those resources 

 belonging to Anticosti, which, being wholly independent of 

 soil and climate, may be turned to immediate account. These 

 'principally consist of its sea and river fisheries, which, although 

 comparatively neglected by Canada, may be classed among the 

 most valuable fisheries of British N'ortli America. 



In the recent report, published by the New Brunswick Government 

 upon the fisheries of that province, mention is made of the valuable 

 whale and cod fisheries existing upon the coast of Anticosti ; and it is 

 stated that the Jersey houses fit out vessels to carry on the former upon 

 both sides of the island, and up the St. Lawrence as far as Bic, some of 

 of the whales, ("hump backs "), being seventy feet long,jind yielding 

 eight tons of oil ; while the fishermen of Gaspe frequently resort to the 

 east end of the island and take cod in great abundance. 



It thus appears that on every side of Anticosti valuable whales 

 .abound; the pursuit of which, and of seals and cod, it is not improbable, 

 could be carried on in winter as well as in summer, were the attempt 

 to be properly made. 



Of cod, (observes Mr. Roche), Mr. Corbet remarks that " one boat, 

 with two good fishermen, could take off South West Point, or at Fox 

 Bay, eighteen hundred of these fish in one day;" while Mr. Morrison 

 stated that cod, halibut, and a variety of other fish, could be caught all 

 round the island in incalculable quantities, and that no finer cod is caught 

 on any part of the coast of America, or on the banks of Newfoundland, 

 than is to be met with there. To this may be added the testimony of 

 Capt. Fair, R.N., of H. M. ship Champion, who states that he met a 

 few shallops from the Magdalen Islands, at the east end of Anticosti, 

 where they found cod in great abundance, and of excellent quality. 



Of hardly less value than the former is the seal fishery, which could 

 certainly be carried on in winter, as well as in summer, many seals 

 being seen on the ice during the former season and in the spring, and 

 thousands of them being observed during the summer and autumn, at 

 the entrance of all the bays .and rivers, where they remain almost 

 entirely unmolested. To show the value of this fishery in the gulf, the 

 New Brunswick ofBcial report, already cited, brings forward an instance 

 of a schooner engaged in it from S^'dney, Cape Breton, having cleared 

 £14,000, within three weeks of her having left that port. Yet at 

 Anticosti, where seals abound more than in most parts of the gulf, this 

 fishery is at present almost entirely neglected ; the Americans and 

 others, who resort to its neighbourhood, being principally engrossed 

 with the still more profitable cod and mackerel fisheries. For the 

 storing and preservation of seal, whale and cod oil, the temperate 

 degree of heat at Anticosti dvtring the summer, is particularly 

 favorable. 



At the present moment the mackerel fishery is the most lucrative one 

 in the St. Lawrence, and is the most extensively pursued ; mackerel 

 now selling at Boston for nineteen dollars a barrel, and at Halifax and 

 Quebec for a few dollars less than that sum. No part of the gulf 

 abounds with this fish more than the neighboui-hood of Anticosti. 

 Many schooners visit the coasts of the latter from the United States, 

 the Lower Provinces, and a few from Gaspfi, to carry on this fishery, 

 in which they are very successful; and Mr. Corbet states that the 

 mackerel he has seen in July and August come in shoals so thick and 

 so close to the shore, that as many as one hundred barrels could be 

 taken in one haul of the net. A few houi-s' work will thus sometimes pay 

 the whole expenses of a schooner during the season. 



Herrings, as fine as any in the world, are as plentiful about the 

 island as mackerel ; but, from the wretched manner in which they are 

 cured, they obtain a much less price in the m'arket, and are, therefore, 

 comparatively neglected by the fishermen. 



At the entrances of all the rivers and creeks immense quantities of 

 lobsters are thrown up by the sea ; the collection of which, and the 

 preserving them on the spot for distant markets, or sending them fresh 

 in vessels containing wells, to our home markets, might render this 

 fishery a very profitable one. Eels are also very numerous and very 

 fine, and are often collected by parties of Indians, who come over for 

 the purpose from Mingan, and who obtain a high price for them from 

 the Americans. Some of the halibut, which are found off the coast, 

 attain the weight of three or four hundred pounds. 



The caplin, which are now merely used as bait for cod, are so 

 abundant around the island, that they are some times thrown up by 

 the sea and cover the shore to the depth of two feet. Were they pro- 



