The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-02-02
The Herring Fishery OF Newfoundland.

The chief seats of our herring fishery
are Labrador, Bay of Islands, Bonnie
Bay, st. Georges Bay and Fortune Bay.
The herrings taken on Labrador and
in the Bay of Islands are among the
best in the world, but they are cured in
most slovenly fashion, and hence do not
take that place in the market which,
under a skilful cure, they would do. In
tined one day to be the Amsterdam of
Newfoundland, the herring fishery
opens in September, and continues
throughout the whole winter. When
the bay is frozen over holes are cut in a
the ice, and the fish taken out in nets.
SO abundant are the herring that it is
no uncommon thing for fisherman to
earn IS and $l2 day. | knew an in
stance lately in which fisherman Melted
herring to the amount of $40 in two
days. American. Canadian and Nova
Scotian vessels visit the Bay of Islands
and take away all the fish caught. The
population is very scanty, amounting to
only three hundred or four hundred
persons. Our own merchants do moth
ing in this fishery, which might be in.
definitely increased, Were skilltul curers
sent to teach the inhabitants the proper
method of cure, and were capital en-
barked in this fishery, a flourishing town
would speedily spring up on the shores
of this fine bay. Theland and tim Der are
excellent marble and gypsum abound.
1t would be difficult to find any place
with finer natural resources.
The herring fishery of Fortune Bay is
only second to that of the Bay of
Islands. Large quantities are exported
from this locality in winter, in frozen
state, and sold fresh in the markets of
New York and Boston. The far-famed
Labrador herrings are exported direct,
after being picked, to various markets,
Baltimore and Montreal being the best.
Our average export of herrings may be
taken at one hundred and fifty thous-
and barrels--value three dollars per
barrel.
1t is noteworthy that the herring is
taken nearly all the year round along
the costs OF Newfoundland and Labra-
dor. 1t appears, however, at different
points at different seasons. Thus, on
the Labrador coost it shows itself about
the middle or the end of September,
and about the same time in the Bay of
Islands. In st. Georges Bay and For
tune Bay the autumn herring-fishery
commences much earlier. These facts
indicate that our herring is not migra-
tory, but local to the coasts on which
it is taken. In fact, it never ventures
far from the shores where it is captured,
its movements being from deep to
CHI al ha
purpose of depositing its spawn. All
round our shores there are different
races OF herring in different places, hav-
ing marked d tierences in size, shape
and quality.
From merely glancing at the fish, an
expert fisher will tell in moment their
different localities. The ST. Georges
Bay herring differs widely from those
taken in the Bay of Islands and Bonnie
Bay and Labrador herring is never
mistaken for Fortune Bay herring.
Thus, then, at various points there must
be different shoals or colonies Of fish,
whose habitat is limited, and who ore
found invariably in the same locality.
They come regularly to the same spawn
ing ground, and retire to the same feed
ing ground, probably at no great dis
lance, when they have repeated the
story of their birth. The same holds
good in Scotland, where the well-known
Lochfyne herring is essentially differ
ent in its flavor from that of he Firth
OF Forth; and those taken in Firth of
Forth differ again, in many particulars,
from those caught off Yarmouth. An
experienced fisher knows the different
| localities of the same kinds of fish as
easily as q farmer would separate q
Chcviot sheep from Southdown. The
old theory which represented herrings
as migrating annually from the Arctic
seas, IN one vast army which sent out
detachments to the shores of Europe
and America, is now abandoned by all
welliniormed naturalists. 1t is now
known that the herring is not found at
all in Arctic seas. Even on the Green
land coast only small variety is seen.
-- The family of the herring is rather
extensive; the most common members
being the common herring, the sprat,
the shad, the pilchard, the whitehall
and anchovy. The lilchard is the sar-
dine OF commerce, but its place is often
usurped by the sprat, which is now gen.
orally admitted to be the young of the
herring. On the coast Of Brittany, in
France, thirteen thousand boats are
engaged in the sardine trade, capturing
sprats ana young piichards for curing
as sardines. According to Mitchell, a
sum of 100000 is annually expended on
cod and mackerel roe for bait in this
fishery. Not less than thousand bar.
rels of cod-roe are exported annually
from Newfoundland to France to be
used as ground bait in the sardine
fishery.
An Unfortunate Man.
A sad tale comes from Selma, Ala
L.. LIZ