22 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



stock-fish. " * A later account of Cabot's voyages 2 describes 

 these regions as yielding "plenty of fish, and those very 

 great, as scales, and those which commonly we call 

 salmons: there are soles also above a yard in length: but 

 especially there is great abundance of that kinde which 

 the Savages call Bacealaos." 



The methods of the Indian fishermen and the Icelandic 

 supply of fish are interesting facts. The announcement 

 to the old world of this great supply of fish across the Atlan- 

 tic was a matter of economic importance to the Europeans, 

 who were great consumers of fish. To encourage the fish- 

 eries, the law makers compelled people to eat fish by creat- 

 ing fast days, and at this time every third day was observed 

 as such. 3 The most perplexing fact in the Cabot narrative 

 is the statement that the natives called the codfish Bac- 

 calaos, a name that was applied by the seamen of the Bay 

 of Biscay to that fish long before Columbus sailed on his 

 voyage of discovery. 



The conclusion has been made that the fishermen of 

 France must have visited these regions long before the 

 voyage of Cabot. Local traditions have laid claim to the 

 discovery of the banks of Newfoundland by the fishermen 

 of Normandy and Brittany before 1492. Those coasts 

 were peopled by a race of adventurous mariners, and such 

 ports as Dieppe, Saint Mario, Honfleur, and others, had 

 already furnished men and leaders for voyages of ex- 

 ploration and discovery. The fishing population of the 

 French provinces were accustomed to voyages of consider- 

 able length, as they had already visited the Canaries and 

 the coast of Africa. There is no reason why fishing 

 voyages might not have been made to the banks of New- 



1 Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of the United States, 

 III, p. 54. 



2 Hakluyt, Principal! Navigations, III, p. 27. 



3 Winsor, IV, p. 3. 



