1855.] 



REVIEWS. 



831 



perly cured and exported, thcj' would fiuil good markets iu Europe; or 

 oil of an excellent quality could be made I'roni them bj' the simple 

 process of boiling. 



The number of schooners which resort to the shores of Anticosti, 

 from the United States, the Lower Provinces and the Magdalen Islands, 

 in pursuit of the cod and mackerel, is so great, that there are some- 

 times as many as one hundred vessels fishing between the East Point 

 and Fox Bay at one time, all of which are generally very successful. 

 If these fisheries can be so profitable to expensively fitted out schooners, 

 (of from 40 to 150 tons), some of which come a distance of fifteen 

 hundred miles, and have to bring every supply, including provisions 

 .and salt, with them, how much more profitable would they become to 

 parties residing upon the island, who would have their supplies upon 

 the spot, and who could carry on their operations in boats. How im- 

 portant also to the latter, would become the trade which might be 

 created with the former : the supplying them with provisions, often 

 with fishing gear, and with every description of marine stores ; and 

 how soon would such a trade lead to piore extensive transaction", in 

 regard to the purchase of fish upon the spot, and the disposal of it in 

 the best markets, and to a further trade in West India, South Ame- 

 rican and Mediterranean produce, obtained in exchange for fish, and 

 being in great dem.and in Canada. It might also lead to the gradual 

 rise, at ditferent points of the island, of good sized villages, and ulti- 

 mately of towns. 



Of the river and lake fisheries of Anticosti, Mr. Corbet, who leases 

 them, as well as the right of hunting the whole island, but who 

 keeps up a very small establishment, and consequently makes use 

 of his privilege to a very slight extent, says: " 1 have frequently, 

 • along with two Indians, taken in the month of July, in one day, twelve 

 hundred salmon-trout, and upwards of two hundred salmon, out of 

 Observation River, near the South West Point, the majority of the 

 salmon-trout weighing four pounds, and the salmon from twelve to 

 fifteen pounds ;" and Mr. Morrison states, that the first day he went 

 up Salmon River he caught, in a very short time, with a small net, 

 from two hundred to three hundred fine salmon ; and that, too, by 

 confining his fishing to only two or three of the numerous holes to 

 which salmon resort in that river. Even in winter Mr. Corbet has 

 caught quanties of fine trout, by cutting a hole in the ice, and fishing 

 with a hook. This gentleman owns a schooner, in which he sends the 

 produce of the fisheries, and of the chase, obtained by him, to the 

 Quebec market, where it commands a high price. The master of this 

 schooner is one of the many parties, who are desirous of purchasing 

 land, and settling entirely upon the island, with which he has been 

 connected for fifteen years. 



Though all the rivers of Anticosti abound with the finest salmon, 

 few of them are fished to any extent, in consequence of there being 

 but a small number of persons residing upon this island, and those 

 who come there not being prepared, and not having the right to fish 

 in the rivers ; "which, with sufiicient attention and judicious manage- 

 ment, might be made almost as valuable as the best salmon rivers in 

 Scotland, for each of which a rent is obtained of from five to fifteen 

 thousand pounds sterling, per annum. The markets for fish in the 

 United States, being about to be thrown open to Canada, under the 

 Reciprocity Treaty, will soon become quite as remunerative as any in 

 Europe, and will consequently raise the v.alue of our river fisheries to 

 what is obtained for the most valuable of the former. 



The porpoise fishery, which is successfully conducted at Tadousac, 

 at the entrance of the S.aguenay, each porpoise caught being worth 

 £'li>, in the leather and oil which it is made to yield, might .also be 

 carried on at Anticosti at a considerable profit, the latter being as well 

 situated for the purpose as the former. 



The hunting upon the island is of consideriible value, though of far 

 less importance than its fisheries. The animals consist of black bears, 

 martins, otters, and the silver gray, the red, the black, and sometimes 

 the wliitc fox ; all of which are very numerous, and for the skins of 

 which Mr. Corbert realizes excellent prices in the Quebec market. 



Great quantities of ducks, geese, partridges, and other fowl, also re- 

 sort to the lakes upon the island, some of which are of a species 

 peculiar to England ; and a duck, called the muniack, remains about 

 the shore all the winter. 



Thus, even in respect to fooil, Anticosti, in an uncultivated state, is 

 rot so inhos]iitable as it is generally supposed to be ; for with its fish, 

 its bears' flesh and its fowl in abundance, what active sportsman is 

 there, who could not often obtain a monl there, with hi.i rod, or with 

 liis gun V 



With so many other resources, it is of little consequence whether or 

 not Anticosti shall be found to possess valu.able minerals. There is no 

 account of its having been visited by a geologist ; but iron ore of great 

 richness, is frequently met with. 



Mr. M'Ewan mentions having found freestone, some as also as fine 

 as water of Ayr-stone, and some as coarse as grindstone. The fossil- 

 iferous limestone, which exists in great quantities upon the shores 

 in thick horizontal strata, is of so fine a grain and color, and so hard, 

 that it is deservedly classed under the head of marble. 



Taken separately, observes Mr. Roche, the resources of Anticosti, 

 Ks they are yet known, may not appear so important as those of coun- 

 tries more favored by careful attention, by settlement, and by a fair 

 expenditure upon them of labor and science combined, under which 

 their resources have been partially developed ; but, viewed together, 

 they cannot but be regarded, by any unprejudiced observer, as of con- 

 siderable value, and as giving promise, (upon the introduction there of 

 those agencies which have been successfully at work elsewhere), of 

 becoming a source of wealth and prosperity to the whole province. No 

 comprehensive view of the resources and capabilities of the island hav- 

 ing ever been taken, is one reason why it has been so long neglected ; 

 and why, throughout its three thousand three hundred square miles 

 of territory, it yet gives shelter to no more than some fifteen or twenty 

 residents, distributed between the fishing stations of the lessee, the 

 light-houses and the provision posts, all of which are situated upon the 

 south side of the island ; the fishing stations being at the South West 

 Point and the entrances of Observation and Becscie Rivers, the light- 

 houses at the East Point and the South West Point, and the provision 

 posts being also at the light-house stations, at Shallop Creek, about 

 half way between them, and at Ellis Bay. The state of desolation in 

 which the island remains, is shown by the necessitj- for keeping up 

 these provision posts for shipwrecked sailors, in the same manner as, 

 in former days, wells were dug, shady trees planted, and caravansaries 

 maintained in the desert, for the relief of pilgrims and travellers by 

 the Arab and Indian princes ; but, unlike the deserts of the East, .\n- 

 ticosti has hitherto been condemned to desolation, not on account of 

 its being incapable of being made to sustain a population, but because 

 of the superficial examinations of its soil, bordering upon the sea shore 

 only, which have been made from time to time, and of the reports and 

 general rumours, based upon those examinations, similar to those un- 

 just popular rumours, which have for many years kept back many 

 other countries, since become known and now arrived at a flourishing 

 condition, and which, until the last few years, condemned Newfound- 

 land to be a mere fishing station. Even Prince Edward's Island, now 

 the garden of our maritime provinces, was for a long period kept back 

 by prejudices, as absurd and unjust, as those which long operated 

 against the progress of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and which up 

 to the present time, have rendered Anticosti worse than useless ; a 

 terror to the mariner, and an inhospitable wilderness at the threshold 

 of the province, frowning upon, and depressing in spirit, all who seek 

 Canada by the route of the St. La^TCnco. 



•But what Mr. Roclic conceives to give more value to Anti- 

 costi, thau its capabilities of soil and climate, or its many other 

 resources, whether belonging to the sea, to the rivers, or to 

 the land, is its position at the entrance of the St. Lawrence, 

 in the direct and only channel of an immense traffic, which, 

 within a very short period, is certain to become vastly in- 

 creased, not only by the throwing open to 'the American.s 

 the navigation of the St. Lawrence, under the reciprocity 

 treaty, recently concluded, but also by the extension of the 

 trade of the Province to all parts of the world. 



" Whether viewed with regard to this future trade, or to the 

 existing maritime trade of the Province, which is confined to 

 England, the United States, the Lower Provinces, and the West 

 Indies; to the establishment of an cnlrcjiol in the direct channel of 

 that trade, and of a coaling station for the three lines of steamships 

 about to run between England and Quebec ; or viewed as affording 

 the most favourable points for establishing fishing stations, and of set- 

 tlements and villages for supplying the fishermen belonging to the 

 island, as well as those who will be attracted to its coast fisheries from 

 a distance, and who will be desirous to rent certain portions of the 

 shore for the purpose of drying fish there ; the position of Anticosti is 

 a most admirable one ; and if the island were composed of nothing but 

 rock, without soil sufiicient to produce a blade of grass, its position 



