The Bay of Chaleur 
     
    
   
   
    
     ACQUES CARTIER entered and named 
     
    

    
     La Baie des Chaleurs in the year 1535, 
     
     i but before that time the unnamed waters 
     
     had been frequented by European fisher- 
     
     men, drawn there by the splendid fishing 
     
     for which this bay has long been known. 
     
     The name ‘Bay of Heats’ was probably 
     
     given to mark the genial temperature of 
     
     these waters as compared with that of the more frigid waters of 
     
     the Newfoundland shore. In very early maps it is termed La Baie 
     
     des Espagnols, or ‘Spanish Bay', from the fact that many of the 
     
     early fishers were from Spain. The Indian name, Ecketuam Nema- 
     
     ache, the English of which is ‘Sea of Fish,’ is quite appropriate, too; 
     
     but the use of the name Bay of Chaleur is now universal. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The Bay is more than ninety miles long, and receives the 
     
     waters of fully sixty rivers and streams. Sea and brook trout are 
     
     found in nearly all of these tributaries, and in many of them the finest 
     
     salmon are caught. It is rarely stormy, on account of the protection 
     
     afforded by the projecting peninsulas, and the outlying islands, 
     
     Shippegan and Miscou. The air is clear and pleasant, and fog is 
     
     comparatively unknown. The tides, also, are quite moderate. 
     
    
   
   
    
     American fishing fleets visit these waters every year. They 
     
     may be seen in the spacious harbor of Miscou Island when they come 
     
     there from the outer waters for shelter in stormy weather. The Bay 
     
     of Chaleur has always been a favorite fishing-ground for New Eng- 
     
     landers; for it was a Yankee captain of whom Whittier wrote in his 
     
     “Skipper Ireson's Ride,” describing the punishment meted out to 
     
     that hard-hearted man for his cruelty in abandoning to its fate a 
     
     sinking craft manned by his fellow-townsmen. 
     
    
   
   
    
     “Small pity for him !—He sailed away 
     
     From a leaking ship, in Chaleur Bay,— 
     
     Sailed away from a sinking wreck, 
     
    

    
     With his own town’s people on her deck ! 
     
    
   
   
    
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