CHAPTER X 



BAIT-nSH— EXPANSION— AND CONFLICT 

 The central object in an allegorical picture which symbol- Cod and 

 ized Newfoundland would be the cod-fish, and around it would determined 

 be grouped its favourite bait the herring, the capelin, which the history 

 resembles a sardine or anchovy, and the squid, which is a ^y^^fouttdland^ 

 of cuttle-fish. Shoals of herring strike into shore in the 

 middle of May and in September. In the middle of June 

 capelin sparkle like foam upon every wave which breaks upon 

 the shores, where they are gathered by women and children 

 in buckets' -full, and in August shoals of squid supply their 

 place. These are the cod-baits of Newfoundland ; and as in 

 Newfoundland cod is supreme and fish means cod — herring, 

 capelin, and squid, whether used as bait or for their own sake, 

 are spoken of as the bait-fish of Newfoundland. 



Cod brought men into Newfoundland, and its influence on bait-fish 

 population in the nineteenth century produced, or helped to producing 

 produce a trek into Labrador after cod, herring, and seals ; plications^ ' 

 conversely where there were no cod, settlers were absent, 

 and Chappell wrote in 1818 that Ingornachoix Bay, though 

 teeming with lobsters, was without cod, and therefore without 

 men, and Sir W. Kennedy wrote in 1885 that Hare Bay was 

 also without men because it was without cod. In the fishing 

 treaties with France in 1783, and with the United States in 

 1 81 8, cod was the one kind of fish of which the treaty-making 

 powers thought, and the treaties were made in the interests of 

 the codders. Yet the principal movements of population, and 

 all the international complications of this period were due not 

 to the cod but to the satellites of the cod, and more especially 

 to its chief satellite, the herring. As in these latter times the seal assist- 

 seal allied itself to the cod in bringing material prosperity and ^Hf^ters ^'^ 

 political peace, so the lobster allied itself to the herring in assisting 



P herring. 



