THE COD AND COD—FISHERY 297 
women, and children that every year starts for Labrador 
from Newfoundland as soon as the ice of winter breaks up 
and the journey becomes possible. At, length these so- 
called summer settlers pushed as far north as Cape Harri- 
gan, and the floaters as far as Cape Chidley. Of late years, 
however, an ebb tide has set in, and more fish is taken in 
the Straits and along the southern shore than in the north, 
and many of the northern summer settlements have been 
abandoned. 
On first consideration the Labrador voyage does not 
sound particularly enterprising. But there are features 
about it which are not immediately apparent. The 
entire living of these pioneers depends on the fishery, for 
the fur catching in Newfoundland is almost a negligible 
quantity as far as most of the men are concerned. Only 
of late years has enough work at the Sydney (Nova Scotia) 
mines or steel works, or at the iron mines on Bell Island, 
Newfoundland, been available, in case a family is left with 
nothing for the winter. Even that is not open to all. 
Labradormen have only one string to their bows, so that 
the daily increasing anxiety from not finding fish as the 
summer wears away tells heavily on the skipper. I re- 
member one poor fellow tying an anchor round his neck 
and jumping over the side of the schooner in the night. 
He came up with the cable in the morning. 
The mainstay of many of these men to-day, especially 
_ the southern men, is the little plot of land at home, which 
is attended by the aged or by those incapacitated and able 
to be spared from the long Labrador voyage. On this 
home patch they grow enough potatoes, cabbages, and 
turnips to “put them through the winter,” if only a hand- 
