104 FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



Meanwhile, take a look at the hold. It is divided off into pens or com- 

 partments, in which is stowed the salt necessary to cure the fish. \\\ a fresh 

 halibut catcher these pens would be stowed with ice instead of salt. 



Now just step on deck again. Here is something that will interest you. 

 Do you see that splashing far away on the horizon ? That is a school of 

 porpoises, and they are coming this way. I'll take the harpoon and go out 

 on the bowsprit, and should they cross our bows, try my luck. I'm not very 

 expert with this weapon, but it may serve to kill time agreeably, if not a 

 porpoise. Here they come, launching themselves along with dazzling ra- 

 pidity. One might call them the very incarnation of vitality and action. 

 I sometimes think, when I see them evidently enjoying life so intensely- 

 launching themselves through the air by those magnificent twenty and thirty 

 feet bounds — chasing and racing one another with lightning action — that it 

 is their way of expressing their gratitude for being permitted to inhabit such 

 a beautiful world of waters, and for being so admirably adapted to enjoy it. 

 Whang! I missed that one! Quick! haul in the slack line and give me 

 out the harpoon again. We are in the midst of the school now. Whiz I 

 again. I've struck one this time. Pay out the slack line and heave the 

 helm down ! Don't check him till the vessel's way is stopped, or he will 

 snap the line. Now you may try him. There he comes alongside, disput- 

 ing every inch and making some wicked plunges. We will get a running 

 bowline over his tail and haul him aboard. There he comes in. How he 

 lashes the deck, every nerve quivering with rage and excitement. 



The breeze has freshened.. We have left Cape Sable behind and are 

 booming along the Nova Scotia shore at a good rate. We shall soon be in 

 Canso, where we shall probably take what bait we require. The bait this 

 time will consist of herring. These are taken by the resident fishermen, in 

 nets, and brought alongside the vessel and sold at so much per hundred or 

 barrel. It is more exciting work when we catch our own bait, especially if 

 that bait happens to be squid. 



I shall not say much of the inevitable "frolic" we get upon the night 

 before leaving for the Banks. What pretty girls we — ^get introduced to. 

 And here, lest the better-halves of the married portion of my compagnons 

 de voyage should become jealous, let me say that / saw no improper flirta- 

 tions going on on their part. Not one of the benedicts under my eye danced 

 more than twice with the same young lady. An old familiar, just dropped 

 in, suggests I might possibly myself have been too much engrossed to ob- 

 serve all that was passing around me. It is a base insinuation, and were 

 he not a privileged character I should freezingly point him to the door. 



Leaving all these open questions behind, let us consider ourselves on the 

 fishing grounds. Having decided on making a set, we round to and anchor 

 in about forty fathoms of water. The hooks being baited up and all read}', 



