196 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



cod-fishery, and the chief centre of the trade is at 

 St. John's, where the process of packing and 

 shipping the salted fish may be witnessed to 

 perfection. The fish, having been dried on stages 

 erected for the purpose on the shores of every 

 bay and inlet of the island, are brought to St. 

 John's in small schooners and throvm in heaps 

 upon the wharves of the merchants. There they 

 are culled over, sorted into three or four piles 

 according to their quality by experienced cullers, 

 who separate the good from the indifferent, and 

 the indifferent from the bad, with great rapidity 

 and unerring skill. Women with hand-barrows 

 attend upon the cullers, carry the fish into an 

 adjoining shed, and upset their loads beside 

 barrels standing ready to receive them. A couple 

 of boys throw the fish into a cask, piling them up 

 a foot or so above the brim, mount on the top, and 

 having danced a war- dance upon them in their 

 hob-nailed boots to pack them down, roll the 

 barrel under a screw-press, where two men stand 

 ready to take charge of it. Grasping the ends of 

 the long arms of the lever, the men run quickly 

 round a couple of times, lift their feet off the 

 ground, and, throwing their weight on the lever 

 to add impetus to the blow, swing round with it, 



