THE COD-FISHERY 



for which epicures would be prepared to pay fabulous 

 prices ? For a thousand years the industry has been 

 pursued pretty regularly off Iceland ; for four hundred 

 off the American Banks ; yet, at the present day, the 

 supply is most likely larger than it has ever been ; the 

 fishery giving employment to 150,000 vessels and 700,000 

 men. 



The reason is that the cod reproduces its species at a 

 rate that is out of all proportion to that of most other 

 fish. If the reader will bear in mind that one roe 

 contains at the very least somewhere about six million 

 eggs, he will see that there is nothing particularly out- 

 rageous in the boast made by an old French fisherman of 

 having caught five hundred cod with hook and line in one 

 day of ten hours. 



The fishery off the Iceland coast is carried on by a few 

 Danish, Norwegian, and British crews, but mainly by 

 French, the season lasting all the summer long. The 

 majority of the French boats taking part in the trade 

 are from Brittany broad-beamed, substantial-looking 

 yawls, manned by the strongest and sturdiest fellows to be 

 found in the country. Brittany, indeed, has its special 

 hereditary Iceland fleet ; men whose fathers, grandfathers, 

 and great grandfathers have, like themselves, worked on 

 the Banks year by year from February to August or 

 September, and who, from boyhood to old age, have 

 never enjoyed a southern summer. 



For Brittany is a district of granite and moorland, 

 where agricultural labour is at a discount ; and from time 

 immemorial the inhabitants have been obliged to expect 



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