FISHERIES. 85 



course the first, Canada, one of her colonies, takes rank 

 as the fifth or sixth greatest ship-owning country in the 

 world. This is a fact worth noting by those who are always 

 predicting the decay of the British Empire. As a school 

 for seamen the fisheries of the lower St. Lawrence are 

 invaluable. Great numbers of fore-and-aft schooners of 

 from 25 to 50 or 60 tons are employed in this business, 

 but a great deal of the cod-fishing is done in open boats. 

 These are of the whale-boat shape, stem and stern alike ; 

 the rig is generally two spritsails and a jib. Two men 

 fish in each boat ; each man has a pair of lines, one at each 

 side of the boat, and when fish are plentiful in 20 fathoms 

 water the work is very laborious. These boats live in the 

 most tremendous seas, and their owners fear no weather. 

 The baits used for codfish are capelin and squid, the former 

 of which is cast up by the sea at the doors of the fisher- 

 men's cottages in incredible quantities. The peculiar 

 features of a fishing village on the shore of the St. 

 Lawrence are the stages, or platforms, for drying cod- 

 fish. They look like huge ladders lying side by side in a 

 horizontal position, some three feet from the ground. These 

 platforms are covered with layers of spruce boughs, on 

 top of which the fish, when split and salted, are spread to 

 dry in the sun. In the front of each cottage, where 

 one expects to see a garden, there is, instead, one of 

 these stages redolent of codfish. The average annual 

 take of a boat such as I have described is about 10,000 

 codfish. 



It might naturally be supposed that these fishermen 

 are well off. This, however, is not the case. The great 

 Jersey merchants who monopolize the fisheries have made 



