FISHERY. 



Deepest water, coming 1 then on the banks, 

 and fattening extremely. What is caught 

 from March to June keeps well, but 

 those taken in July, August, and Septem- 

 ber, when it is warm on the banks, are 

 apt to spoil soon. Every fisher takes but 

 one at a time ; the most expert will take 

 from 350 to 400 in a day, but that is the 

 most, the weight of the fish, and the great 

 coldness on the hank, fatiguing very 

 much. As soon as the cod are taken, the 

 head is taken off; they are opened, gut- 

 ted, and salted, and the salter stows them 

 in the bottom of the hold, head to tail, in 

 beds a fathom or two square, laying lay- 

 ers of salt and fish alternately, but never 

 mixing fish caught on different days. 

 When they have lain thus three or four 

 days to drain off the water, they are re- 

 placed in another part of the ship, and 

 salted again ; where they remain till the 

 vessel is loaded. Sometimes they are cut 

 in thick pieces, and put up in barrels, for 

 the conveniency of carriage. 



FisnEur, dry cod. The principal fish- 

 ery for dry cod is from Cape Rose to the 

 Bay des Exports, along the coast of Pla- 

 centia, in which compass there are divers 

 commodious ports for the fish to be dried 

 in. These, though of the same kind with 

 the fresh cod, are much smaller, and 

 therefore fitter to keep, as the salt pene- 

 trates more easily into them. The fishe- 

 ry of both is much alike, only this latter 

 is more expensive, as it takes up more 

 time, and employs more hands, and yet 

 scarce half so much salt is spent in this 

 as in the other. The bait is herrings, of 

 which great quantities are taken on the 

 coast of Placentia. When several vessels 

 meet, and intend to fish in the same port, 

 he whose shallop first touches ground 

 becomes entitled to the quality and privi- 

 leges of admiral : he has the choice of his 

 station, and the refusal of all the wood on 

 the coast at his arrival. As fust as the 

 masters arrive, they unrig all their ves- 

 sels, leaving nothing but the shrouds to 

 sustain the masts, and in the mean time 

 the mates provide a tent on shore, cover- 

 ed with branches of trees, and sails over 

 them, with a scaffold of great trunks of 

 pines, twelve, fifteen, sixteen, and often 

 twenty feet high, commonly from forty 

 to sixty feet long, and about one third as 

 much in breadth. While the scaffold is 

 preparing, the crew are fishing, and as 

 fast as they catch they bring "their fish 

 ashore ; open and salt them upon move- 

 able benches ; but the main salting is per- 

 formed on the scaffold. When the fish 

 have taken salt, they wash and hang 



them to drain on rails; when drained, 

 they are laid on kinds of stages, which 

 are'smull pieces of wood laid across, and 

 covered with branches of trees, having 

 the leaves stripped off for the passage of 

 the air. On these stages they are dispos- 

 ed, a fish thick, head against tail, with, 

 the back uppermost, and are turned care- 

 fully four times every twenty-four hours. 

 When they begin to dry, they are laid in 

 heaps ten or twelve thick, in order to re- 

 tain their warmth ; and every day the 

 heaps are enlarged, till they become dou- 

 ble their first bulk ; then two heaps are 

 joined together, which they turn every 

 day as before ; lastly, they are salted 

 again, beginning with those first salted, 

 and being laid in huge piles, they remain 

 in that situation till they are carried on 

 board the ships, where they are laid on 

 the branches of trees disposed for that 

 purpose upon the ballast, and round the 

 ship, with mats, to prevent their contract- 

 ing any moisture. 



There are four kinds of commodities 

 drawn from cod, viz. the sounds, the 

 tongues, the roes, and the oil extracted 

 from the liver. The first is salted at the 

 fishery, together with the fish, and put up 

 in barrels from 6 to 700 pounds. The 

 tongues are done in like manner, and 

 brought in barrels from 4 to 500 pounds. 

 The' roes are also salted in barrels, and 

 serve to cast into the sea to draw fish to- 

 gether, and particularly pilchards. The 

 oil comes in barrels, from 400 to 520 

 pounds, and is used in dressing leather. 

 The Scots catch a small kind of cod on 

 the coast of Buchan, and all along the 

 Murray Firth on both sides; as also in 

 the Fifth of Forth, Clyde, &c. which is 

 much esteemed. They salt and dry them 

 in the sun upon rocks, and sometimes in 

 the chimney. They also cure skait, and 

 other smaller fish in the same manner, but 

 most of these are for home consumption. 



FISHERY, coral. See COR AL fishery . 



FISHKHY, herring. Herrings are chief- 

 ly found in the North Sea. They are a 

 fish of passage, and commonly go in 

 shoals, being very fond of following fire 

 or light, and in their passage they re- 

 semble a kind of lightning. About the 

 beginning of June, an incredible shoal of 

 herrings, probably much larger than the 

 land of Great Britain and Ireland, come 

 from the north on the surface of the sea: 

 their approach is known by the hovering 

 of sea fowl in expectation of prey, and 

 by the smoothness of the water; but 

 where they breed, or what particular 

 place they come from, cannot be easily 



