On the commercial side also Murray Bay was developing.  In 1800 a man came through the district buying up wheat at “9 livers a Bushel,” but since the population was increasing very rapidly, and the people were accustomed to eat a great deal of bread, there was not much wheat for export.  The total exports of all commodities amounted in 1800 to L1500:—­oil, timber, grain, oxen and a few furs being the chief items.  Oil was the most important product; it came from the “porpoise” fishery.  What Nairne calls a porpoise, is really the beluga, a small white whale.  The fishery is an ancient industry on the St. Lawrence.[15] The creature has become timid and is now not readily caught so that the industry survives at only a few points.  At Malbaie it has wholly ceased; but in the summer of 1796 sixty-two porpoises were killed at “Pointe au Pique.”  In the summer of 1800, which was hot and dry, no less than three hundred were “catched.”  Malbaie must have had bustling activity on its shores when such numbers of these huge creatures were taken in a single season.  We can picture the many fires necessary for boiling the blubber.  The oil of each beluga was worth L5 and the skin L1.  Nairne’s own share in a single year from this source of revenue was L70, but even then the industry was declining.

We have Nairne’s statement of income in 1798 and it indicates simple living at Malbaie.  We must remember that in addition, he had received a number of bequests which brought in a considerable income and that he had sold out of the army for L3000.  Perhaps, too, 1798 was a bad year.

“Porpoise” fishery L20
Income from four farms at L20 each 80
Profits from mills 20
                                          -----
                                           L120

The rent from the land granted to the habitants was scarcely worth reckoning, as the people paid nothing until the land was productive, a condition that could apparently be postponed indefinitely.  Since under the seigniorial tenure, the farmers must use the seigneur’s grist mill, Nairne had his mill in operation and Fraser was building one in 1798.  Nairne had also one or more mills for sawing timber.  “I hope there are a great many loggs brought and to be brought to your and my saw mills,” Fraser wrote in 1797, but an income of only L20 a year from the mills does not indicate any extortionate exercise of seigniorial rights.

Already some of the city people were beginning to find Murray Bay a delightful place in which to spend the summer.  In 1799 Nairne writes to a friend, Richard Dobie, in Montreal, that it is the best place in the world for the recovery of strength.  “You shall drink the best of wheys and breathe the purest sea air in the world and, although luxuries will be wanting, our friendship and the best things the place can afford to you, I know, will make ample amends:”—­a simple standard of living that subsequent generations