i88 A SUMMER SAIL TO THE LABRADOR COAST 



marine wolves as the sleeper shark, and also the smaller white whale, 

 as well as several varieties of seal and porpoise. 



The three midsummer months witness a deadly warfare on the 

 devoted cod, which must feel sorry for its commercial importance. 

 In many a picturesque little fiord along the shore are to be seen the 

 shambles where the victims are hacked and hewn into a compact 

 form for the foreign markets of the world. From the foot of a 

 table where a group of three rough men splashed with gore are 

 busily working a smell arises which poisons heaven and is wafted 

 many miles to leeward. This conies from the pile of offal which 

 grows apace as the men keep busily at work. Such a trio are 

 called respectively the ' cut-throat ', the ' header ', and the ' splitter '. 

 The cut-throat seizes the fish by the eyes, cuts his throat, and slitting 

 the belly down to the vent, with a swift single stroke of his sharp 

 sheath knife, passes it on to the header. In a twinkling this man 

 cuts out the liver for a separate receptacle, disembowels the fish. 

 and then decapitates it. Now the splitter catches the fish and at 

 one stroke removes the vertebne, leaving the fish as flat as a pan- 

 cake, opened out from head to tail. Then the salter scatters his 

 white dust, which must be in the exact dose required. If sprinkled 

 in excess it will burn the fish ; if in too small a quantity it will fail 

 to cure. 



Tlie cod is now left to swelter in heaps for a few days. At 

 last the piles are taken down and the fish spread in turn on the 

 ' stages ', which are hurdles carpeted with spruce or fir boughs, 

 supported on strong stakes a few feet from the ground. Great 

 care is now required for many days while sun and wind, here most 

 capricious, complete their useful work in fitting the fish for export. 

 At night the fish have to be collected in piles with the fleshy side 

 down, while each fine morning sees them again spread out to catch 

 the light and air. A boat manned by two men will often load up 

 to the gunwale with hand lines where the water is ten fathoms or 

 less There are many ingenious devices employed, however, whereby 

 the labour of hand lines is supplemented or even avoided altogether. 

 Foremost among these is the trap. A cod trap is formed of sub- 

 merged nets so as to form an enclosure, kept in position by small 

 anchors, by which companies of cod travelling along the line of 

 coast are inveigled into a prison and the door closed after them by 

 means of ropes and pulleys. The fish are thus caught in a sort of 

 bag, and the whole writhing fighting mass is drawn to the surface 

 and literally pitchforked into the small boats as farm labourers toss 

 hay. 



The ' cod seine ' is another deadly contrivance. It is often used 

 to envelop a school of cod in deep water or to sweep a narrow cove 



