64 " ORDER is HEAVEN'S FIRST LAW." 



not so out of season as he himself must have been at 

 midsummer ! 



In spite of the rivalry and contention between the 

 fishing-crews, they all adhere rigidly to certain bye-laws 

 devised for the common good. Among these it is pro- 

 vided that the man who catches fewest fish, a point 

 easily settled by counting the tongues, shall clean the 

 deck, and throw the heads overboard; and to avoid a 

 task so cold and so fatiguing, the tars are all eager to 

 anticipate each other, and to apply themselves as early 

 as may be to the morning's work. No sooner has a fish 

 been hooked and hauled up and sometimes, in his greedi- 

 ness, he is caught by two fishermen at once, when he falls 

 to the lot of him who hooks nearest the eye the captor 

 removes the tongue, and hands him to a second operator 

 (in French, the decolleur), who passes him on to a third. 

 He, cutting open the body, and cleansing it of the liver 

 and intestines, puts him into the hands of the trancheur, 

 that he may remove with his exceedingly sharp knife the 

 ribs and upper part of the vertebrae, and then either split 

 him open from the head to the caudal fin, and dress him 

 a plat ; or else from the gills to the anal fin, a la rond. 

 Next, having been carefully sponged and dried, he is 

 handed over to the salter, who rubs the body with one- 

 sixth of its weight of salt, and then gives it over to the 

 last man, who arranges all the carcasses in rows, and 

 finally packs them in barrels. 



The first part of these complex operations is described 

 by Lacepede " with the precision of an historian describing 

 the execution of some state prisoner." He says: 



" L'eteteur saisit d'abord la morue, en place a faux 

 la tete sur le bord de la table, la cerne avec un couteau a 



