Tales from Dog Island: St Pierre et Miquelon

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and the author of The Salvation
Army and the Public.

In 1713, under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (which ended the War
of the Spanish Succession), Great Britain gave France the right to fish
off, and dry fish on, the shores of Newfoundland from Cape Bonavista to
Point Riche, and also to retain the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
The French Shore agreement remained in effect until 1904. Much has been
written about the agreement and its consequences—the feuds along the
coast, the destruction of English fishing premises, the interminable
negotiations—but little about life on the two French islands.

Translated from the French to English, Tales from Dog Island goes a
long way toward remedying that neglect. Based on fact, it tells the
story of 18-year-old Victor Lemétayer, who emigrated from Brittany,
France, to Newfoundland in 1886. His great-granddaughter recounts the
story that unfolds: Lemétayer’s fishing experiences on the Grand
Banks and along the Port а Port peninsula, his settlement on Dog Island
(next to St. Pierre), the hardships caused by the 1904 settlement, the
family he raised in the New World. This engaging, well-researched novel
deserves a wide readership.