THE COD-FISHERY 



For more than a hundred years the Canadian fishermen 

 have firmly believed that, during the breeding season, 

 the cod are short-sighted. They maintain that when the 

 fish go down and bury themselves in the mud at spawning, 

 Providence supplies them with a special film-like growth 

 which covers the eyes, thus protecting them from particles 

 of grit and sand that would otherwise blind them ; and 

 this membrane, they say, does not disappear till about 

 the end of March. Now, as from November, when line- 

 fishing ends, till the middle of March, when sealing 

 begins, was a slack and often moneyless time for the 

 fishers, some of them began to think how it could be 

 turned to account ; how fish, which would not be per- 

 suaded to leave the bottom where they had a plentiful 

 supply of cockles and shrimps for food, might still be 

 ensnared against their will. The gill-net is the result. 



A stranger, sailing over the ground in winter, would 

 assume that French trawling was going on as usual, for 

 the flag-bearing buoys are still in evidence ; and, if he 

 took the trouble to pull one out of the water, he would 

 find a buoy-line running down from it, differing from the 

 trawl-lines only in being considerably stouter. Moreover, 

 if he took a dive to the bottom, he would see that the 

 gear is held down by a couple of small anchors, just as in 

 the other method. Or, again, he might see only one keg 

 instead of two, for often the second buoy-line is made fast 

 to a boat lying at moorings. 



But the two little anchors that will sink a set of lines 

 are not sufficient to weight this sort of tackle, and to 

 help it to preserve its perpendicular with a strong current 



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