696 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



The cod fishery ia the most important. The 

 bank or deep sea fishery is now almost abandoned 

 by the English to the Americans and French ; the 

 cod found on the outer bank is larger than that ob- 

 tained in shore, and remarkably well adapted to 

 most of the SpanUh and Portuguese markets, but 

 does not look so well when dried. The season 

 commences with April, and ends in October. 

 There are an immense number of boats of differ- 

 ent descriptions engaged in the shore fishery; viz. 

 punts, skiffs, jacks, or jackasses, western boats, 

 and shallops, employing from one to seven men each, 

 according to their size, and the distance they may 

 have to sail before they reach their respective fish- 

 ing grounds. The punts and small boats are gene- 

 rally manned by two persons, and occupied in fish- 

 ing within a very short distance of the harbour, or 

 circles to which they belong; the skiffs, carrying 

 three or four hands, proceed to more distant 

 stations, sometimes twenty or thirty miles ; the 

 western boats are larger than skiffs, and usually 

 fish off Cape St Mary's, off the entrance of a bay 

 so named ; the shallops are still larger craft, hut 

 now almost obsolete : some of this latter class have 

 been known to admeasure fifty or sixty tons each. 

 The punts and skiffs, constituting what is termed 

 a " Mosquito fleet," start at the earliest dawn of 

 day, and proceed to the fishing grounds, when the 

 cod are expected in great abundance, for at certain 

 seasons they congregate and swim in shoals, and 

 are not unfrequently as capacious in their resort as 

 the winds which are said to influence their move- 

 ments : these boats generally land their cargoes at 

 the "Stage" at least once a day, usually in the 

 evening, except it be in the height of the season, 

 during capelin time, when they may occasionally 

 load twice a day ; the western boats and shallops 

 split and salt their fish aboard, and return to their 

 respective harbours when they may have expended 

 all their salt, or loaded their craft. 



The staije is erected on posts, and juts out into 

 the sea, far enough to allow the boats to come close 

 to its extremity, for the ready discharge of their 

 cargoes; it is generally covered over, as the rain 

 will injure the fish, and on the same platform is 

 the salt house, with the benches for the cut-throat, 

 header, splitter, and salter, the two latter having in 

 point of wages the precedence, and the two former 

 being on a par. 



Having thus explained the method of cod-fishing, 

 it remains only to describe the manner of curing. 

 Each salting-house is provided with one or more 

 tables, around which are placed wooden seats and 

 leathern aprons for the cut-throats, headers, and 

 splitters. The fish having been thrown from the 

 boats, a man is generally employed to pitch them 

 with a pike from the stage upon the table before 

 the cut-throat, who rips open the bowels, and, hav- 

 ing also nearly severed the head from the body, he 

 passes it along the table to his right hand neigh- 

 bour, the header, whose business is to pull off the 

 head, and tear out the entrails ; from these he se- 

 lects the liver, and in some instances the sound. 

 The head and entrails being precipitated through a 

 trunk into a flat-bottomed boat placed under the 

 stage, and taken to the shore for manure; the liver 

 is thrown into a cask exposed to the sun, where it 

 distils into oil,* and the remaining blubber is boiled 

 to procure an oil of inferior quality, and the sounds, 



*u Th f Uvq r *f ken from 30 quintals of cod fish ou<?ht to 

 yield a tun of oil, hut it somrtimes requires more or less, ac- 

 cording to the quality of the fish 



if intended for preservation, are salted. After 

 having undergone this operation, the cod is next 

 passed across the table to the splitter, who cuts 

 out the back bone, as low as the navel, in the 

 twinkling of an eye. 



"With such amazing celerity is the operation ol 

 heading, splitting, and salting performed that it is 

 not an unusual thing to see ten codfish decapitated, 

 their entrails thrown into the sea, and their back 

 bones torn out, in the short space of one minute 

 and a half. The splitter receives the highest 

 wages, and holds a rank next to the master of the 

 voyage ; but the salter is also a person of great 

 consideration, upon whose skill the chief preserva- 

 tion of the cod depends. 



For the next process, the cod are carried in 

 hand-barrows to the salter, by whom they are 

 spread in layers upon the top of each other, with a 

 proper quantity of salt between each layer. 



In this state the fish continue for a few days, 

 when they are again taken in harrows to a square 

 flat wooden trough (commonly called the ram's 

 horn), full of holes, which is suspended from the 

 stage head in the sea. The washer stands up to 

 his knees in this trough, and rubs the salt and slime 

 off the cod with a soft mop. The fish are then 

 taken to a convenient spot, and piled up to drain ; 

 and the heap thus formed is called "a water horse." 

 On the folio wing day or two the cod are removed to 

 the fish-flakes, where they are spread in the sun to 

 dry; and from thenceforward they are kept con- 

 stantly turned during the day, and piled up in small 

 heaps called faggots, at night. The upper fish are 

 always laid with their bellies downward, so that 

 the skins of their backs answer the purpose of 

 thatch to keep the lower fish dry. 



By degrees the size of these faggots is increased, 

 until at length, instead of small parcels, they as- 

 sume the form of large circular stacks or piles ; 

 and in this state the cod are left for a few days, as 

 the fishermen say, to " sweat." The process of 

 curing is now nearly complete, and the fish ex- 

 posed once or twice to the sun are afterwards 

 stored up in warehouses, lying ready for exporta- 

 tion. 



There are three qualities of cured cod-fish in 

 Newfoundland. They are distinguished by the 

 different titles of merchantable fish, and West 

 India fish. Merchantable fish are those cured in 

 the best possible manner, and having no apparent 

 defect: Madeira are those having some slight 

 blemish on the face, occasioned by an undue quan- 

 tity of salt, or being sunburnt; West India having, 

 in addition to the defect of the Madeira, some 

 cracks in the middle, or broken at the fins. 



Merchantable fish are generally shipped for the 

 Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and South American 

 markets. Madeira atid West India fish are sup- 

 plied to the West Indies, and of late years a con- 

 siderable quantity has been annually exported to 

 the southern and western counties of Ireland. The 

 west of England also consumes no unimportant 

 quantity of salted cod annually. 



Another fishery of great importance to the 

 island and to England is that of seals, for the sake 

 of their skins and oil. In round numbers, there 

 were in 1831, seals caught 744,000; in 1832, 

 538,000; in 1833,438,000; and in 1834,401,000. 



The fishing or catching of the seals is an ex- 

 tremely hazardous employment ; the vessels are 

 from 60 to 150 tons, with crews of from sixteen to 

 thirty men each, provided with fire arms, &c., to 



