THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 309 



around the edges. Hot sun also spoils fish very quickly; 

 sunburnt fish turns black and slimy. This, however, is 

 not so likely to happen in the bracing climate which, in that 

 respect at least, is adapted to the fisherman's needs. The 

 most interesting and skilled part of the curing process is the 

 splitting of the fish, the removal of the backbone. Women 

 may cut off the head and take out the entrails. They also 

 wash out and even salt the bulks, but a really smart split- 

 ter is always the best man on a " room " or a vessel. 

 Good men have been said each to split a hundred quintal 

 between morning and evening; that is, have cut out the 

 spine, from head to tail, of ten thousand cod in one day. 

 Moreover, the bone must be all neatly removed, and the 

 flesh must not be injured. I have timed a good splitter who 

 finished fourteen fish in a minute, whereas I myself took 

 nearly a minute to a fish, and then did it poorly. 



The method of paying fishermen in Labrador has been, 

 as in Newfoundland, almost entirely a barter system. 

 The merchant fits out all " planters," who really carry on 

 the fishery. In return, he expects all the fish caught. 

 He then gives him a " winter's diet" out of the proceeds, 

 if they are large enough; if not, the planters expect the 

 diet on credit. They do not expect to turn in money 

 earned in other ways towards this debt, and the law pro- 

 hibits money earned at the seal-fishery being stopped for 

 cod-fishery debts. In the spring a new outfit on credit 

 is called for, and thus large debts pile up, which the mer- 

 chants know they can never expect to collect in full, and 

 which the planter soon begins to consider he does not really 

 owe. They have been called red-letter debts. 



An example may be given. In 1896 one firm of mer- 



