THE WONDERFUL WEALTH OF THE OCEAN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR, —Long ere this reaches you I trust more capable pens than mine will have intervened to show the other side of the canvas which Mr. Moreton Frewen has painted in such rosy colours in your issue of August 24th. In his letter headed "The Wonderful Wealth of the Ocean " he refers specially to the Pacific Coast fisheries of Canada, and it is with this coast and its possibilities as an "ideal occupation for disabled soldiers " that this letter is concerned. Much money has certainly been made the last two or three years, and instead of perhaps fifty launches oft this southern end of the banks, as we had running in and out of the town last year, this season saw more like two hundred at the busiest time- i.e., the best weather, June and July. But just here we only run to herring, salmon, pilchard, and dog-salmon fishing, each in their season, with ground fish thrown in. As to " a twopenny fish-hook being the unit apparently necessary to build up a fortune," and
to go fishing a man requires practically no capital," the day of canoes and rowboats, even for our Indians, is past. Prac- tically all have launches, ranging from $500 to $2,000, perhaps averaging $800, in value. Smaller ones must be equipped with fast enough engines to run for shelter on the approach of a sudden storm; larger ones, of course, cost more, and must be fit to Weather Storms. Salmon-fishing gear would cost $25—trolls, hooks, and spoons.
This coast has been known for many years as the " boneyerd or the Pacific." Is the loss of H.M.S. Condor' forgotten, which slipped out of Esquimalt in the early "nineties " (was it ?), and only a lifebuoy or some such relic washed up outside this penin- sula to tell the tale of disaster? What of the Valencia,' with its freight of men and women from the Northern goldfields, clinging to the masts for hours, with boats round all anxious to help, but powerless among those awful rocks? and there were watchers on -shore too. That was to the south of us; but the 'Pass of Melfort,' just a mile across this narrow peninsula, was an equally fatal wreck, only two of the poor battered bodies, still warm, being rescued for burial from that tearing foam, and the remains of the young apprentices' sea-chests and their pitiful contents came ashore later among other wreckage. This summer the merciless rocks have again claimed their toll. One young fellow ran on to them near Benefield cable station in a fog, one of our Red Cross subscribers. It was to be his last trip before visiting his mother. He still lived, but they couldn't resuscitate him. Next week an American halibut boat, valued by her owner at $15,000, ran on to a rocky island at the mouth of the Arm on her way south, with $2,000 of fish on board, owing to dense fog and miscalculation of tide. They rowed in, but no tug was available powerful enough to pull her off before she was smashed. An Indian salved her afterwards, and I can see her as I write—a worthless hulk. Other causes contribute to loss besides storm. Within a week of the above two friends were sitting smoking in the cabin of one of the launches anchored in the Arm for the night. A match was struck, I believe, and she burnt so fiereely they could not even scuttle her, and the owner had $100, too, on board; but no lives Were lost—just all his gear and belongings. These are just local happenings, and I must not dwell on the Mexican ship lost two Winters ago, with only six or seven lives saved, on Long Beach, twelve miles north of us.
Halibut, save odd fish, have to be sought in the open ocean. Our annual rainfall is one hundred and thirty inches, and the further north the heavier it is. Gear for this fishing costs, this season, about $65 a skate—that includes line, at 55 cents a pound, books, &e., and may all be lost in a day through storm, and a fresh skate of gear set out next day! A hurdy, which saves hand pulling up of the lines, which is cruel work, costs about $75 nowadays. Winter halibut fishing is not practicable, I believe, on account of stormy weather. Queen Charlotte Sound is noted for its stormi- ness. Travelling by the Grand Trunk Pacific steamers from Rupert to Victoria, it and a shorter passage, Milburn Sound, are the two bits of water one dreads even in August, when I hays) heard everything tumbling alhout during the night. So a " fish- ing settlement on the Queen Charlotte Islands for disabled soldiers" sounds cruel banishment.
Most fishermen live on their boats, the cramped quarters and discomforts of which in wet weather can he imagined Those who get hold of a scow on which they run up a cabin are in clover, as they can tow it from place to place and follow the fish. The ones who live "on the shores of that forest-clad ocean" are not in the region of contractors whose " contract price for a good four-room cottage, with bathroom, is but X1001 "- They are content with a log hut, if very lucky, but more usually a shack with roof and walls of cedar shingles and a stovepipe through the wall or roof ! But the majority have homes in our seaboard cities, where a small lot costs $1,000—and the cottage described in Mr. Moreton Frewen's letter costs nearer $2,000 (=.£100) than $500—and return there in the winter.
I hold no brief for the fishermen, and would gladly sea the industry in the hands of men who have fought for their Empire. Some have tried their hand at it this year, and made expenses; others failed. It is a very hard life. One, who with his stepfather is night fishing up the Arm this rough weather, told me they get very little sleep through the week, but do not set their nets Saturday and Sunday. Their days seem spent cleaning boat, lanterns, &c., and cooking, betsides running their oatch to the cannery boat or whatever firm is buying. We have many Japanese this season. Last year I was unfavourably impressed with the majority. Acting for a few months as representative of the Canadian Patriotic Fund, a voluntary society for increasing the allowances made to depend- ants of our soldiers, J tried to induce those white men makine this their headquarters to contribute a day's wages—$3 a month— to our fund. Their gross selfishness appalled me. One gave $1; his brother and a friend promised 50 cents apiece, but never came forward with it. All were young, able-bodied men. Many were Scandinavians or Americans, the latter not then interested in the war, and the former frankly Socialists, who informed me gravely that it was a capitalists' war, and they should pay for it, and that we had treated Greece as Germany had Belgium! Your paper comes to me third-hand, I believe, from a Scotch relative, and it is passed on at present to a Norwegian friend—not. a•Socialist, who is very enthusiastic over its content s.—I am, Sir,
West Coast, V«ncourcr Island, B.('., October 11th.
Previous page
