“The wealth of New England was founded by this fishery, and a stuffed codfish remains in the great Municipal Hall of Boston to commemorate the obligations of the Commonwealth to this humble foundation of their progress and prosperity.”
From May to October is the cod-fishing season. The small fishing-smacks, manned by a crew of six or a dozen men, look very picturesque as they lie anchored in the fishing-grounds, with their sails proudly quivering in the breeze. These smacks are equipped with small boats called “dories,” which are frequently sent out some distance from the smacks to make independent catches. At nightfall these dories return with their treasure to the smack. Then begins the work of slitting, cleaning, salting, and packing away in the hold. To see an army of men brandishing their “slitters” over the silver bellies of the fish in the moonlight is one of the weirdest sights imaginable, when viewed from the deck of a passing liner.
The herring, salmon, and lobster fisheries are all of more or less importance, and the perils attending the prosecution of the former are many. The herring-fishing industry is subject to fluctuations every season. At one time there was a great trade in the famous Labrador herrings, but this has practically dwindled to nothing. This disappearance of large and well-known schools of herring from the Labrador coast has called forth many explanatory theories. One authority on the subject suggests: “The practice heretofore adopted of barring large masses of herring, causing many dead fish to sink and thereby pollute the ground, is a partial reason, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the great increase of cod-traps at present used in the Labrador cod-fishery, fencing off much of the coast-line, has had the effect of preventing the herring from entering the bays, as was their wont when the cod-fishery was prosecuted mainly by cod-seines and hook and line. Schools of herring have recently been reported as having been seen by Labrador fishermen, but farther from the land than in former years; and it is not only possible, but probable, that drift-net fishing on that coast would be attended with favourable results, and go to prove that the herring had not really deserted the coast, but were frequenting water clear of the cod-trap obstruction, which may be said to be permanent, as the traps remain in the water both day and night, whereas cod-seines are only used during the day. The migration of the fish, it should be noted, is not an uncommon occurrence in the history of the herring tribe in other countries.”
The most interesting of all the Newfoundland fisheries is “whale-hunting,” as it is called, and so we shall endeavour in a special chapter to describe one of these hunts as prosecuted in the Arctic seas.
CHAPTER VI
A LAND OF TIMBER AND MINERALS
Although it may be many years before Newfoundland is known as an agricultural country, every effort is now being made by the Government to make known the richness of the soil in many sections of the country. The fishing industry has been remunerative for so many generations that little attention has been devoted to the possibilities of the soil, and probably the close proximity of Canada, and its popularity as a country of great rewards for emigrants who are prepared to till the soil, have tended to keep Newfoundland in the background as a suitable Colony for the agricultural emigrants from England and the Continent. But whatever may be the future of agriculture, it is certain that the timber and minerals of the island will be a growing source of revenue each succeeding year.
Among the many minerals that have been discovered in Newfoundland are copper, iron-ore, chromite, pyrites, nickel, antimony, lead, manganese, silver, gold, slate, and coal. In the districts of Codroy Valley, Bay St. George, and the upper reaches of the Humber River, coal is considered to be plentiful, and British capitalists are now about to develop these areas. Iron-ore, however, is the most abundant mineral in the Colony, and Canadian companies have drawn millions of tons from Bell Island, in Conception Bay. It is calculated that the troughs in this island contain the enormous amount of 3,635,543,360 tons of splendid iron-ore. Most of the ore goes to the large smelting-works of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, Sydney, Canada.
Many and dense are the great forests of Newfoundland. Those who were ignorant of the wealth of timber said that there was no future for the lumbering industry; but apart from the rapidly increasing exports of lumber, syndicates are now buying up the forests as rapidly as they can, in order to convert them into paper, upon which your stories, novels, and general news are daily printed. Only recently Lord Northcliffe has spent over 1,000,000 sterling in the erection of pulp and paper mills on the River Exploits. Over 20,000 men will be employed at the mills. The first paper manufactured in Newfoundland was at these mills in November, 1909.