158 VERTEBRATA. PISCES. 



many days they are thus exposed, but only in bright 

 weather, and at night they are carefully laid in cir- 

 cular piles, the tails all pointing inwards, and so 

 built as that the centre shall be higher than the 

 edge. On the pile are laid "rinds," long pieces 

 of the bark of the balsam fir (Pinus Balsamea) taken 

 off in spring and flattened by pressure, which pro- 

 ject over the edges of the pile, and are secured by 

 heavy stones. When quite dry, and brought for sale 

 to the merchant, the fish are examined by a culler, 

 who stands before a board and passes every fish 

 before him, distributing them into three qualities, 

 the best called merchantable, the secondary, Ma- 

 deira, and the very inferior, West India. The 

 causes of inferiority in the last two sorts, named 

 from the markets to which, formerly, they were 

 respectively consigned, are various, such as inci- 

 pient decomposition before curing, too much salt 

 in the process, exposure to rain or damp, accidental 

 breakage, &c. They are then weighed by the quintal 

 of 1121bs. The price, from 1827 to 1835, averaged 

 for shore-fish as follows: Merchantable, 11*. to 1 3s. 

 6d.; Madeira, 9s. to 11s. ; West India, 8*. to 10s. 

 per quintal; but we have understood that it has 

 been rather higher since we left the island. The 

 first quality is chiefly sent, stowed in bulk, to the 

 ports of Portugal, Spain, and Italy ; and a vent for 

 the inferior sorts, pressed in casks, is found in the 

 markets of the West Indies and Brazil. A large 

 number of the inhabitants of Newfoundland, how- 

 ever, prosecute the fishery on the coast of Labrador, 



