THE COD-FISHERY 



The cleaning and salting processes are the same, no 

 matter what means of catching may be in use. As soon 

 as the evening meal on the smack is finished a meal 

 usually consisting of fish-pie or " tinned rations " with tea, 

 coffee, or cider boards are laid out on trestles below 

 decks, thus forming a long table, and all hands take a 

 share at the splitting and cleaning of the day's catch. 

 Boats coming from a long distance will stow their fish 

 away as we have seen the Iceland Bretons do. Those that 

 have put off from Newfoundland, however, will either run 

 into shore periodically with their cargo or else hand it 

 over to carriers ; for the Newfoundlanders have not only 

 to salt, but also to dry their fish. The drying is a labor- 

 ious though very simple process, consisting in laying the 

 opened cod on sloping wooden stages in the sun. If 

 figures and statistics were not rather tedious, the reader 

 might be interested to know that Newfoundland alone 

 exports five and a half million dollars' worth of dried cod 

 every year, in addition to cod-oil to the value of about 

 half a million dollars. 



Now for the gill-net. I have left it till last because it 

 cannot be considered as a feature of the June to November 

 season. Generally speaking, it does not come into use till 

 about a month after the line-fishing for the year has 

 finished. The cod, though one of the easiest fish to be 

 taken with hook and line, is not readily caught by a net, 

 except at spawning time when it is more unobservant and 

 heedless of its surroundings. It has a rooted objection to 

 a net, and a countless shoal swimming at top speed would 

 wheel like lightning on coming within a few feet of one. 



107 



