Ixx PROCEEDINGS. 



IV. From the population of Newfoundland being so generally a 

 seafaring people, they have in use many technical terms connected with 

 nautical life. Some of these are common with English sailors. Thus 

 they have the word lobscouse, originally lolscourse, as in Peregrine Pickle, 

 still farther contracted into scouse, a sailor's dish, consisting of salt 

 meat, stewed with vegetables and ship's biscuits. To this they give the 

 name scoff, which seems to be related to the verb scoff, given as a slang 

 nautical term, meaning to eat voraciously (see Standard Dictionary). 



An odd phrase among them is Solomon Goss's birthday. It is 

 applied to Tuesdays and Fridays as pudding days, when at the seal 

 or cod fishing. What is the origin of it, or whether it is peculiar to the 

 people of Newfoundland, I cannot ascertain. 



But I would specially note the technical terms connected with their 

 fishing. From the intercourse which has taken place for over two 

 centuries between fishermen in Newfoundland and those of the adjoin- 

 ing coasts of America, and even between them and those of European 

 nations, it was natural that the same terms should be used among them, 

 though some seem to be peculiar to Newfoundland or are there used in 

 a peculiar way. 



Tliusflaik or flake is an old English word for a paling or hurdle. 

 In old Icelandic it appears as flald or fatlci especially a hurdle or 

 shield of wicker work, used for defence in battle (Vigfussen Icel. 

 Dictionary). Webster gives it as " Massachusetts for a platform of slats 

 of wands or hurdles, supported by stanchions, for drying fish." But it 

 has long been used in this sense in Newfoundland, and the adjoining 

 coasts of British America, and it is now admitted into the dictionaries 

 as a good English word. 



A curious custom is described in the phrase a press pile compass. A 

 press pile is fish piled up to make, and a press pile compass is a trick 

 played on a green hand of sending him to the next neighbor to borrow 

 the press pile compass. The party applied to has not one to spare and 

 sends him to the next, and so on as on April fool's day. 



The fishermen of Newfoundland have a fishing-boat known as a 

 jack, said to be peculiar to that island. It is from seven to fifteen tons' 

 burden. The deck has open standing spaces forward and aft for the 

 fishermen to stand in while they fish. The deck is formed of movable 

 boards. It is schooner-rigged, but without either fore or main boom. 

 The foresail is trimmed aft by a sheet, and the mainsail trimmed aft to 



