THE ATLANTIC COAST OF LABEADOE. 1 1 



The following additional accounts of the Northern Labrador fishing-grounds, their faunae, etc., 

 are also extracted from the report of Professor Hind : 



Eelation of the Codfish to steanded Icebeegs. — "Upon what forms of life do the 

 codfish feed on the Northern Labrador coast, where the summers are so short, the capelin, the 

 herring, the squid, and even lance comparatively scarce, and where icebergs continually abound ! 

 The answer may be expressed in one word — crustaceans. These are infinite in number, from the 

 minute sea lice of the fishermen to a large crustacean resembling a prawn. Crabs, too, are very 

 numerous, as well as moUusks. Although the capelin ceases to appear on the coast in large shoals 

 above the latitude of Nain, the herring is not numerous beyond Wkkasiksalik, the squid is not 

 found beyond Domino Eiver, and the lance is the only known Southern Labrador fish which visits 

 the northern coast in great numbers, yet crabs, prawns, and ' herring bait,' with medusae, occur 

 in vast numbers, and form, with moUusks, the chief food of the cod. The officer in charge of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's post of Wkkasiksalik informed me that at the more remote northern 

 Hudson's Bay post, if seals were left in the fall of the year for a single night in the nets, the head 

 was sure to be cleaned to the bone by the prawns. He also stated that in the northern water, 

 opposite Hebron, Lampson, and Ma«tiwack, the cod feed on a small fish bearing a great resem- 

 blance to the ordinary tommy cod, but the crustaceans were their chief food. The connection 

 existing between ice and the food of the cod is not apparent at the first glance, but when it is 

 borne in mind that infusorial forms abound in sea water in the immediate vicinity of Arctic ice, and 

 that on these minute creatures larger forms of life find sustenance, which again become the food of 

 crustaceans and different species of fish upon which the cod are nourished, the chain is complete, 

 and the relation of stranded icebergs to fish life on the Labrador coast becomes apparent. It has 

 been shown by the labors of the United States Fishery Commission that the cod, which once 

 existed to a large extent on the New England coast, has been starved out by the destruction of 

 its food, and valuable fisheries ruined, but not beyond the power of restoration if the remedial 

 measures suggested are faithfully carried out and sufficient time allowed. But on the Labrador, 

 particularly the northern portion, through the unfailing advent of Arctic ice, a perennial supply 

 of food is indirectly supplied to the cod, forbidding the idea of starvation on these coasts. 



The innee Eange of Banks. — " The foundations of the inner range of banks consist very 

 probably, as stated, of glacial moraines. In their present state they may reasonably be assumed 

 to be formed in great part of remodeled debris, brought down by the same glaciers which excavated 

 the deep fiords. The absence of deposits of sand in the form of modern beaches on every part of 

 the Labrador coast visited this season (except one) was very marked. The exceptional area 

 observed lies between Sandwich Bay and Hamilton Inlet, Cape Porcupine being the center. It is 

 protected from the northern swell of the ocean by the Indian Harbor Islands and promontory. 

 Here larger deposits of sand are seen, covering many square miles in area. The reason why 

 sandy beaches are not in general found on this coast, notwithstanding that enormous quantities 

 of rock are annually ground up by the coast ice and ice pans driven on the shore, arises from 

 the undertow carrying the sand seaward and depositing it on the shoals or banks outside of the 

 islands. The undertow on this coast is remarkably strong, and it aids the formation and exten- 

 sion of the inner range of banks, and consequently of the feeding and spawning grounds of the 

 cod to a very great degree. 



" It may be advisable here to advert to a popular error, which assumes that the depth of 

 water in which an iceberg grounds is indicated by the height of the berg above the level of the sea. 

 It is commonly stated that while there is one-ninth above there will be eight-ninths below the sea 



