384 Fisuine iw American Waters. 
and, N.Y. With the great rise and fall of the tides, and the 
consequent swift currents, many eddies are thus formed, and 
for hundreds of miles to the south of Newfoundland, and ex- 
tending to the west end of Anticosti, the feeding-grounds for 
food-fishes form a larger fishing area than any other in the 
world. 
This meeting and mingling of the frosty Northern waters 
with those more mild from the Gulf Stream are supposed to 
form another attraction for fishes, and the bait-fishes are fol- 
lowed thither by the food-fishes, and the latter by most of the 
voracious monsters of the deep, and thus procreation and 
depletion keep step with supply and demand. 
A voyage by schooner from the north shore of the Gulf, 
and turning the west end of Anticosti while bound for Gaspé, 
gave me some sights of whales in spouting groups which 
would be worth a voyage from New York to those waters to 
witness. Whales generally swim in pairs, unless they have 
a calf, when that swims between them for protection; but I 
saw several groups at a time of more than three in each, all 
spouting like politicians. Our tub of a schooner, which kept 
“bidding and bobbing” like Mrs. Toodles at an auction, re- 
minded me of the following couplet: 
“¢ When to the wind we spread our sails, 
Along the pathless ocean strolling, 
Crammed in a tub stock full of nails, 
Like Regulus, we die by rolling.” 
Having thus spent a few nights and days on the turbulent 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, rising one bright morning unharmed in 
our tub, which seemed cast to the whales, as they surrounded 
us, we were elate with joy at the brilliant display which na- 
ture afforded in the bright heavens, sparkling waves, whales 
spouting in every direction, the light-house looming on the 
Isle of Anticosti, and the appearance of numerous beautiful 
birds swimming about our craft, which we learned were puf- 
fins, a species of duck peculiar to the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
near Anticosti. These birds are about the size of a mallard, 
