BRITISH, COLONIAL, AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 603 



Vessels employed in cod fishery are manned by from ten to thir- 

 teen men, according to their tonnage. Generally the owner of the 

 schooner, who also supplies the men with all the necessary fishing 

 tackle, receives half of the fish which is caught, the fishermen re- 

 taining the other half. 



"When the vessels have reached the fishing grounds they are 

 anchored, by hemp or manilla cables, in from fifteen to fifty fath- 

 oms of water. Bait is obtained by spreading nets in the sea at some 

 distance from the vessel, and the fishing is then begun with long 

 lines, and carried on, by night as well as by day, in spite of wind 

 and storm, until the hold of the vessel is filled with fish all split 

 and salted. Then the vessel returns to port, the cod is landed, 

 washed, dried and prepared for exportation " (Dr Fortin). 



In the province of Quebec fishermen carry on the cod fishery in 

 open boats, some of them near the coasts in the neighbourhood of the 

 coves and bays where they reside, and some on the banks twenty or 

 thirty miles from the shore. 



Those among the fishermen who have the means of doing it, build 

 their own boats, buy their fishing tackles, and have the advantage 

 either of selling their fish fresh in the local markets, or of curing it 

 and getting a better price when it is dried from the speculators who, 

 in the fall, visit every locality along the coast of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, for the purpose of buying cod-fish. 



The fisherman who has no boat of his own goes to the capitalist 

 who is engaged in the fishing business. This capitalist furnishes 

 him with a boat all equipped and ready to go to sea, for the sum of 

 five or seven pounds for the fishing season, with the express and 

 written condition that all the fish caught by the fisherman in this 

 boat will be sold to the merchant who furnishes the boat. The boats 

 vary in dimensions, and are from eighteen to thirty feet keel, and 

 their breadth of beam from six to ten feet. They are very sheer 

 built, and the clinker work is usually of cedar. They are built like 

 whale-boats, that is to say, they are pointed at the stem as well as 

 the stern. Their rigging consists generally of two sprit-sails or gaff- 

 sails; some of those used to fish on the Miscou and other banks are 

 schooner-rigged. They are built by the fishermen themselves, are 

 good sailers, and behave wonderfully well at sea, especially those 

 from Gaspe and Cape Breton. 



" The inshore fishing is carried on with hand lines, and the fisher- 

 men always set out for the fishing grounds at two or three o'clock in 

 the morning. On arriving at the place where they expect to find fish 

 they cast anchor ; then they bait their hooks with fresh fish and drop 

 their lines into the water, each with a leaden sinker attached to it, 

 weighing from two to four pounds according to the depth of the 

 water and the force of the current." 



" Each of the two fishermen who mann each boat has two lines when 

 fishing in thirty or forty fathoms of water. When the fishing is in 

 ten fathoms, or less, they use four lines each. If there are plenty of 

 fish, as it is often the case in the spring, the fisherman has not a 

 moment's rest, when once he has begun ; for while he is hauling up 

 one line the other is going down and before he has unhooked one fish 

 from the former another fish is fast to the latter. The lines are 

 always furnished with two hooks and often-times they come up with 

 a fish on each hook ; the fishermen calls this " taking a pair." 



