THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 345 
ago, of men and women supposed to be bringing evil luck 
in the fishery. Laws have existed in England forbidding 
the taking of herring between sunrise and sunset, under the 
idea that the nets turned the fish. An Irish law forbade 
nets to be out between sundown on Saturday and sunrise 
on Monday. Probably the best laws, however, areno laws 
at all, until more definite knowledge is possessed as to the 
real causes of the movement of the herring. 
A great deal of the value of the cured article depends 
upon the methods of cure, and much skill is needed to be 
really successful. In Europe the fish is pickled round, 
not being split at all; in America they are split and cured; 
in Holland the belly is clipped off with scissors. The va- 
riety of barrel is also an important point. The wood once 
used with us was hard, clear spruce. But the Labrador 
barrel industry has died with the departure of the herring. 
For more reasons than one many have been left sorrowing 
for a friend of whom we are all fond in every way and whose 
loss we deeply deplore. 
Mackerel are not taken in Labrador, except occasionally 
on the shores of the Gulf of St.Lawrence. The range of this 
fish is from Belle Isle Strait to Cape Hatteras. In general 
the lack of variety of round fish on the Labrador is com- 
pensated only by the abundance and quality of the cod and 
salmon. 
None of the marketable flatfish of Europe and America 
frequents our waters. Absent is the succulent sole, the 
delectable plaice, the toothsome turbot and brill. The 
witch sole, deep-water denizen though he is, pays us no 
visits. Of all these prime fish, only a stray halibut wander- 
ing in from the enormous schools that frequent the great 
