1*2 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



are employed by the Labrador fishermen. I say nights, and this is 

 often strictly true ; the fishermen sometimes do not return with their 

 loads until late in the evening, when the work extends far into the 

 night by candle and lamplight, since the fish would become soft if left 

 for so short a time even as over night out of the water. On rare occa- 

 sions the fish are placed in bags, which are then moored out in deep 

 water. In this way they keep a long time, but it is rather a tedious 

 and troublesome operation, and one seldom employed unless the quantity 

 taken is far in excess of the workmen employed. 



Cod liver oil is an article in great demand all over the world, but I 

 often think that could one look back of the final distillerv, which of 

 course purifies every particle of the oil, they would not enjoy a very 

 pleasant prospect. As it is our honest endeavor to follow the cod-fish- 

 ery to it's legitimate end, one cannot well avoid touching upon the sub- 

 ject in question. It is truly a sight to watch the huge puncheons 

 and vats filled with the cod livers, and note from day to day how the 

 rays of the sun, pouring their strength upon the mass, gradually decom- 

 pose it and send the dark, thick, rich oil to the surface. The oil will 

 begin to gather in two or three days, or more quickly if the days are 

 extremely hot, when it is dipped up with a ladle and strained, if 

 necessary, into large barrels provided for the purpose. It is generally 

 reckoned that a quintal offish (pronounced kental) will furnish a gallon 

 of oil, but sometimes the livers are of a poor quality and will not pro- 

 duce so much. At the end of the season the blubber remaining from 

 the livers after all the oil has been extracted is used, boiled, to rub 

 over the roofs of houses, and is an excellent material to preveut the 

 rain from soaking through. It is also saved and fed to the dogs during 

 winter mixed with other food. It is thus that Labrador people learn 

 to economize and use even those naturally waste productions, the rem- 

 nants of their season's profit. You can easily imagine' the scene a lively 

 one when thirty or forty men are engaged in putting away a day's catch 

 of some ten or twenty deeply-loaded boats, and the stage is filled and 

 covered with men, fish, and oil ; yet this work is not hard, except that 

 it requires continued attention. 



The curing process is, however, not yet completed. After a stay of 

 from three to four weeks iu the salt, the fish become pretty thoroughly 

 pickled; they are then taken out, put into large trays of water, and 

 pushed about from side to side, pried over and over, and again pushed 

 around in the water until all the salt is washed off of them, when they 

 are spread upon the "flakes" to dry in the sun. Fish flakes consist of 

 a series of long, narrow rows of low posts pounded into the ground, 

 upon which are laid frames composed of slats some feet long, either 

 three-cornered, with the angle pointed upward, or oblong, flat, nailed 

 upon cross-bars about G inches apart, the bars usually 2 or 3 feet 

 from each other. Upon these rows of lattice work the fish are laid to 

 dry. They remain spread while the sun is up, but are gathered into 



