CHAP. xvin. CANADIAN FISHERIES. 297 



difficulty, but from which they cannot or do not escape. 

 This huge trap catches all kinds of fish, from the capling 

 to the salmon. The fishermen take the fish out with scoops 

 after lifting one of the compartments of the net nearly to 

 the surface of the water. The entire net rises and falls 

 with the sea, and is not affected by storms, but it is liable 

 to be coated with slime, and to rapid deterioration. On 

 looking over the side of the boat into this deep sea fishery, 

 we observed thousands of cod fish swimming about in the 

 ' pound.' Mr. Tetu informed us that he allows the fish to 

 remain in his nets until he requires them ; they feed as in 

 a preserve, and he can supply his neighbours with fish at 

 any time to keep their workmen employed when the 

 weather is too boisterous for the boats to go to sea. Mr. 

 Tetu is subjecting himself to a fine for using a mesh 

 smaller than that allowed by law ; but he says that the 

 profits of his fishery will enable him to pay the fines. On 

 the day of our visit he took 9,000 cod fish out of his 

 traps.* 



The Canadian fisheries on the lower part of the river 



* A shoal of fish coining in either direction in thirty to forty feet of water, 

 the depth of the net, find their course intercepted ; some of the fish pass 

 round the seaward side of the net and escape ; the others or some of them, 

 coming landwards, enter the first compartment, swim round its side, and a 

 portion pass into the second compartment, swirn round its side, and, always 

 pursuing a straight course, ultimately enter the third compartment, and finally 

 the pound or fourth compartment. The fish, when swimming round the 

 sides of the net, are observed to pass by the narrow doors, keeping always 

 'straight ahead;' so that, if the doors are always^wsA with the sides of the 

 net, the fish swim straight on and do not turn out of their course to pass 

 through them, and consequently remain in the pound when once there. It 

 is needless to say that the net is floored with net, and really forms a gigantic 

 bag with square sides and narrow perpendicular inlets. When the fish are 

 taken out, the pound or any single compartment of the net is raised by 

 men in boats, who haul up the net with rope attached to the floats. 



