LABRADOR AND GULF OF SAINT LAWRENCE COD FISHERIES. 137 
Nain. They may return in general by the 10th to the 20th of September to Southern Labrador 
rooms, or even to their homes, with full fares of green fish. 
“The extremities of many of the deep fiords from Cape Harrison to Ukkasiksalik, or Freestone 
Point, a distance in an air line of 120 miles, contain timber fit for spars, for the construction of 
‘fore-and-afters,’ and for all ordinary building purposes. The climate there, namely, at the bot- 
tom of many of these deep fiords, permits of the cultivation of potatoes and other garden vegeta- 
bles. Between Aillik and Ukkasiksalik there are at present about sixty resident settlers in the 
deep fiords, most of whom have been in the service of the Hudson Bay Company or the fishing 
firms already named, and some of them are married to Eskimo women. 
“There are several other points of great interest in regard to the Northern Labrador which 
are worthy of notice, but the details would swell this paper to dimensions far exceeding those of 
a brief descriptive outline sketch of a comparatively new field for that kind of enterprise and 
industry in which Newfoundland is so distinguished, and from which she annually derives so much 
wealth. 
“The expansion and preservation of her fishing grounds for the use of her own people appears 
to claim, however, thoughtful and liberal consideration, and not only from those who may profit . 
by the industry, but from those also who may be able to assist in lessening the difficulties with 
which it is beset, in ameliorating the hardships inseparable from its pursuit, and in aiding the- 
development of the resources of the vast area it may yet be made to occupy.”* 
The fishing grounds in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence frequented by the vessels of the United 
States were chiefly south of the line of Cape Ray and Cape Gaspé. In the spring the vessels have 
of late years fished principally on the east and north coasts of Cape Breton, and in former years 
there was a great deal of spring and summer fishing about the Magdalen Islands, but these grounds 
have been but little frequented since the introduction of trawl fishing. Later in the season 
fishing is carried on about Bradley Bank, Orphan Bank, Miscou Flat, off the mouth of Bay 
Chaleur, and on Pigeon-Hill Ground, lying along the coast between Shippegan Island and Mir- 
amichi. More or Jess fishing is carried on in other parts of the Bay of Saint Lawrence, as it is 
called, by our fishermen, including that part of the Gulf between Cape North and Cape Gaspé. 
4 
' 
3. THE FISHERMEN. 
These fisheries were carried on at a time when all the fishermen of the United States were 
native born. At present there is nothing particularly distinctive about the men in this fleet. A 
large percentage of the Provincetown schooners fishing in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence hire part of 
their crews on the Nova Scotia coast. 
4, THE VESSELS. 
The vessels are, with the exception of a few Gloucester vessels which make one trip to Cape 
North in the spring, among the oldest in the off-shore fishing fleet. They are generally employed 
only in the summer, and are equipped in the old-fashioned way. The arrangement of decks and 
hold is much the same as that on the Grand Bankers. They carry no ballast, excepting the salt 
which is to be used in curing the fish. Some of the Provincetown vessels carry on deck large 
tierces, such as are used on the whaling-vessels for oil. In these the fish are “struck” or pickfed 
in brine previous to stowing away in the hold. 
The vessels of the Labrador fleet always carried four or five boats of the pattern now generally 
*H.T. Hind. The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of 
British North America. 1877. Part II, pp. 68, 69. 
