224 I'ISH CULTURE. 



British America, without the aid of Canada, obtains 

 $8,500,000.' " 



I will add a few fapts to show the value of this 

 fishery. In 1317, the first English vessel that 

 visited the coast of Newfoundland, found French, 

 Spanish, and Portuguese engaged in the traffic. In 

 1615, England had 200 ships there, while the French, 

 Biscayans, and Portuguese had 400. Many of these 

 ships carried twenty guns, eighteen boats, and fron^ 

 ninety to a hundred men. In the early part of last 

 century, the inhabitants of New England had about 

 1,200 tons of shipping employed in the whale-fishery ; 

 and, with their vessels engaged in the cod-fishery, they 

 caught upwards of 23,000 quintals of fish, worth 

 12s. per quintal, which they exported to Spain and 

 the Mediterranean, and remitted the proceeds in 

 payment for English manufactures, In 1745, the 

 annual value of the North Amierican fisheries was 

 stated to be 982,000/., or close upon a million a year; 

 and this, of course, represents a far larger value in 

 the present time than it did a hundred years ago. 

 In 1787, the number of British vessels engaged was 

 402, employing 16,856 men, while, besides large, 

 quantities of fish, there were nearly 2,400 tons of 

 oil exported, In 1814, the exports of fish and oil 

 amounted to nearly 3,000,000/, The advantage to 



