134 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
archives of the Fish Commission, and we shall attempt only an outline, reserving the full discus- 
sion for some future occasion. 
2. THE FISHING GROUNDS. 
The fishing grounds of Labrador and those of the west coast of Newfoundland, which were 
also frequently visited by the Labrador fleet, are described as follows by Prof. Henry Youle Hind: 
“The fishing grounds on the Atlantic coast of the Labrador, as far north as Sandwich Bay, have 
been occupied to a greater or less extefit for one hundred and twenty years. Those extending 
from Sandwich Bay to Cape Harrison or Webeck have also been visited by fishing craft for a gen- 
eration or more; but north of Aillik, about 40 miles from Cape Harrison, the coast has only been 
frequented by Newfoundland codfishing craft during the last fifteen years. A Quebec and Lon- 
don house have possessed detached salmon-fishing stations as far north as Ukkasiksalik or Free- 
stone Point (latitude 55° 53”, longitude 60° 50’), for about thirty years, but these have all passed 
into the hands of the Hudson Bay Company. Until the recent publication of Staff-Commander. 
Maxwell’s surveys* our knowledge of the Labrador coast has been chiefly derived from the Mora- 
vian missionaries and the surveys of certain harbors far removed from one another by the officers 
of Her Majesty’s vessels. 
“A glance at Commander Maxwell’s chart, when compared with any document published pre- 
vious to 1876, shows how little is known respecting the geographical outlines of this extended 
coast line, which, from its amazing fish wealth, promises to become a very important commercial 
adjunct to Newfoundland. 
“The leading characteristics of the coast northwest of Aillik are as follows: 
“1. The shore-line is deeply serrated by a constant succession of profound and narrow fiords 
stretching from 30 to 50 miles into the interior. 
“2, It is fringed with a vast multitude of islands, forming a continuous archipelago from 
Cape Aillik to Cape Mugford, averaging 20 miles in depth from the mouth of the fiords seawards. 
“3, Outside of the islands, and about 15 miles seawards from them, are numerous banks and 
shoals, which form the summer feeding grounds of large cod, while outside of the shoals there 
appears to be a second range of banks and slopes, which are probably their winter feeding grounds. 
“4, The island-studded area forms an immense codfishing ground, which covers between 
Cape Harrison (Webeck) and Cape Mugford a boat fishing ground, exclusive of the shoals and 
banks outside, nearly as large as the combined area of the English and French boat fishing ground 
on the coasts of Newfoundland.t 
“For the sake of distinction I have styled the area under review, ‘The Northern Labrador 
Fishing Grounds,’ beginning at Cape Harrison (Webeck), and, for the present at least, terminating 
at Cape Mugford. 
“Area of the Northern Labrador boat fishery—The following table shows approximately the 
area of the boat fishing grounds about the island of Newfoundland and the Northern and Southern 
divisions of the Labrador. From this table it will be seen that the area of the Northern Labrador 
fishing grounds alone, exclusive of the Banks, amounts to about five-sixths of the entire area of 
the British and French boat fishery on the coast of Newfoundland. The area of the innner range 
of banks cannot be even approximately stated: ‘ 
*See Colding ‘‘On the Laws of Currents in Ordinary Conduits and in the Sea,” in Nature, December, 1871. 
+See paper by H. Y. Hind entitled ‘Notes on the Influence of Anchor Ice in relation to Fish Offal and the New- 
foundland Fisheries,” Parts I and II. Saint John’s, Newfoundland, 1877. 
