COD-FISHING 



when they light upon one of the vast shoals of fish 

 that seem to swarm from place to place, the whole 

 family goes out in the boat, and the baby in the 

 mothers' hood is the only one that seems too small to 

 ply the jigger, and tiny children somehow manage, 

 with much struggle and determination, to land fish 

 almost as big as themselves. 



The quantity of codfish is astonishing; they 

 must literally teem in countless myriads along the 

 coast ; for year after year not only the Eskimos, but 

 hundreds of schooner crews from Newfoundland, 

 gather them by barrelfuls I might say tons and 

 year after year the fish are there, seemingly as 

 plentiful as ever. It is a fine living, the cod- fishing ; 

 the people look to it for their main supply of those 

 things that money can buy, and a good season may 

 not only pay the debts which a man has made at 

 the store during the winter and spring, but give him 

 new tools, a new gun, a harmonium, or even a sofa 

 for his house. 



Though the drying of the fish is a thing that 

 they have had to learn, they put every bit as much 

 care into it as they do into all the hunting which is 

 natural to them ; and I have been amused to see 

 how they scurry when a sudden shower of rain 

 comes and threatens to damp the half-dry fish that 

 lies upon the rocks. 



This is the time when the ships and the visitors 

 come to Labrador ; the time when the cod-fishing is 

 in full swing, and when, as a visitor once said to me, 

 66 The whole place smells of fish " ; the time when 

 the Eskimos live scattered along the shores of the 

 bays and runs. There are a few little huts and iglos 

 still to be seen, where families have found a good 



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