330 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



as they changed feeding - grounds. On their return in the 

 evening they ran alongside the planked docks, extending into 

 the river from the salting and packing houses, erected part- 

 ly over the water. From vessels the cod were pitched up 

 on the docks (with forks made for the purpose), where they 

 were beheaded, split, drawn, and cleaned, then pitched into 

 the salting-room, where salt was rubbed into them for two 

 days, and on the third day they were spread on the flakes to 

 dry. The " flakes" are tables of fir-boughs, made by driving 

 forked stakes into the ground, then laying poles across, and 

 covering them with boughs of the fir-tree. These flakes were 

 two yards wide, three feet high, and covered several acres. 

 The fish, after being salted two days, on the third day are 

 spread singly upon the flakes to dry. Here they are left four 

 days, when they are grouped into small piles on the flakes 

 of twenty-five fish in each pile, and left in that condition two 

 days to sweat, when they are again spread on the flakes as at 

 first, and, after two days more, are piled up two days as be- 

 fore. Then they are gathered from the flakes and formed 

 into round stacks, their necks at the outer edge of the stack, 

 which is usually about five feet high, and contains a ton of 

 fish. After leaving them a week in stack, they again distrib- 

 ute them on the flakes to dry, and after another week they 

 again stack them. They are thus continued on the flakes or 

 in pack about a month in summer, but only half that time in 

 autumn, when they are considered cured. The cod cured on 

 the north shore of the Gulf are dried harder than those on 

 the south shore for the United States market. Those cured 

 on the north shore are generally sold in South America, the 

 West Indies, and to ports in the British Isles. 



The question of" What luck have you had ?" is more espe- 

 cially applicable to fishers for the market than to the disciple 

 of rod and reel ; for, without bait, a perilous voyage and a 

 whole season's labor produce nothing but disappointment. 

 The caplin, spearing, and smelt are sometimes prevented by 

 rough weather from approaching waters where they may be 



