APPENDIX. XXXV

GULF FISHERIES.

Mr. Finlay, late Editor of the Scottish American Journal, in No. 2 of his “ Notes from the Provinces." alludes to the fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the following terms :—

“ The great American fisheries are in the Gulf St. Law- rence, chiefly for mackerel, in pursuit of which hundreds of ‘vessels from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts ipass through the Gut of Canseau every summer. All along Prince Edward Island. on the shores of Cape Breton, around the Magdalen isles. up the Bay of Clialeur those smart schooners are to be seen. On one occasion, no fewer than our hundred of them were counted in a single harbor on the north side of Prince Edward Island. The mackerel ‘fishing, it is well known, is a very money-making pursuit, and must necessarily have been so at the enormous prices which these fish had attained until they came to share the fate of everything else in the present depression. Every kind of fish is abundant in the Gull of St. Lawrence, and in ‘every part of the Gulf. though in some places the pursuit is more remunerative than others. Taking into account all the adjoining seas, the Atlantic on the other side of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. and the coasts ot Labrador,.it may safely be maintained that there is no place in the world where the fishery business can be so advantagecusly carried on as in and around the Gulf of St. Lawrence. * “‘ * " " Within the Gulfthere is literally nothing done by British enterprise, unless we include under that designation the Jersey house of Roliine & 00.. Boutilier & 00., and one or two other. The former firm have establish- ments at Gaspe, and Paspebiau in Lower Canada and at Arichat, Cheticamp, and Inganish in Cape Breton; they have a capital of £150,000 in their business, employ about 3,500 fishermen, and have sixteen vessels of three or four hundred tons engaged in carrying their fish to foreign markets. The example of these Jersey houses, and those of Newfoundland, which have realized fortunes, does not seem to have had much efi'ect in the way of stimulating their neighbors. So far as the British population is concerned. living on the shores of, the Gulf, ifs waters might as well contain neither cod. mackerel, nor any other fish, either pleasant to the taste or profitable to the purse. The Pro- .vincial Governments are waking up to the necessity of doing something to turn to account the munificent bounty