NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Newfoundland fishery. 



sixteen to sixty fathoms. The great bank of 

 Newfoundland is represented to be like a vast 

 mountain, above five hundred miles long, and 

 near three hundred broad ; and the number of 

 British seamen employed upon it is supposed to 

 be about fifteen thousand. The best season for 

 fishing is from the beginning of February to the 

 end of April ; and though each fisherman takes 

 no more than one fish at a time, an expert hand 

 will sometimes catch four hundred in a day. 

 The employment is excessively fatiguing, from 

 the extreme coldness of the climate, and the im- 

 mense weight of the fish. The heads of the cod, 

 as soon as they are caught, are cut off; they are 

 opened, gutted, and salted ; they are then sto\v- 

 ed in the hold of the vessel, in beds five or six 

 yards square, head to tail, with a layer of salt to 

 each layer of fish. "When they have lain here 

 three or four days to drain off the water, they 

 are shifted into a different part of the vessel, and 

 again salted. Here they remain till the vessel 

 is loaded. Sometimes they are cut into thick 

 pieces, and packed in barrels, for the greater 

 convenience of carriage. 



In the Newfoundland fishery, the sounds, or 

 air-bladders, are taken out previously to incipient 

 putrefaction, washed from their slime, and salted 

 for exportation. The tongues are also cured; 

 and brought in barrels containing four or five 

 hundred pounds weight each. From the liven 

 a great quantity of oil is extracted. 



