244 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. 



the cod fishery in a very bad condition, the boats having; 

 taken only from five to thirty quintals each at the dif- 

 ferent harbors. Ice was packed in on the coast, and 

 none of the vessels had got beyond Battle Harbor. 



" August ist the average catch of cod on the north- 

 east coast of Newfoundland — Cape Freels to Cape Bauld 

 — did not exceed a single quintal of marketable fish, 

 and in many places was less than half this amount. 



" On August 4th I talked with the crew of the 

 schooner Edward Rich, of Catalina, Newfoundland. She 

 had been fishing in the Strait of Belle Isle, and was then 

 at Cape Norman. She had a crew of ten men and had 

 taken only one hundred and twenty quintals of cod up to 

 that date. 



" Newspaper accounts, which I saw at a later date, 

 stated the Labrador fishery had been a failure this year- 



" No American vessels have engaged in the Labrador 

 fisheries since 1880, so far as we are informed ; and then 

 only a single vessel went there. Unless there is a 

 marked improvement in the cod fishery of that region, I 

 believe it will not be long before vessels will stop going 

 there. Already the Nova Scotian and Newfoundland 

 fishermen are changing their summer trips from the 

 Labrador to the outer banks." 



