Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1893 — The Fish Industry. [ARTICLE]

The Fish Industry.

Everybody,knows that fishing is one of the important industries of towns on the coast, but it is a question if any one has a definite idea of what a bountiful mother the sea is to us. The Dominion of Canada is particularly noted for its great fisheries, and the value of the fish drawn from the waters on its coast in one year is about $12,000,003. This does not include fish taken from the waters of British Columbia, Manitoba or the Northwest If these be added nearly $20,000,000 will he the total. Another $20,000,000 will represent the trade done in this country. In these figures the yields from all branches of fisheries are given. Splitting it up into items the largest we have is the cod, the yearly yield being about $0,000,000. Nova Scotia alone secures $2,500,000 of this and $1,500,000 worth of mackerel. The cod is as far ahead of mackerel as that fish is ahead of all the others. The cod is an inhabitant of the temperate zone. He is found in great abundance off the Cape of Good Hope, where he nibbles freely nt the baited hook dropped from the sides of ships by sailors becalmed on their way home from the East Indies. He also exists in Australian waters, but his chief homes are the Banks of Cape Breton shore and some portions of the Bay of Fundy. He is not particular about the bottom. His chief care is to allay the cVavings of a capacious stomach, which is ready to accommodate itself to anything that turns up without much discrimination. He lies close to the bottom usually, awaiting his prey, his dark back and sides scarcely discernible from the surrounding rocks, and darts like a flash upon any of the smaller fry that are so unfortunate as to come within his reach. If herring and similar fish be scarce he searches among the stones for crabs, clams or other shellfish.—[New York Advertiser.