42 AMBROSE- — ON ST. MARGARET's BAY FISHING GROUNDS. 



haddock. They feed by day, and take readily any bait offered to 

 the codfish. They also eat sea-Medusae or " sea-squalls" as they are 

 called here, and in this resemble the mackerel, which also feed on 

 these jelly-like creatures. 



Haddock keep outside in winter, leaving the Bay about the 

 middle of December, and returning about the first of May. The 

 best fishing within the Bay is from the middle of May to the end of 

 June. At this season two hands in a boat will take seven or eight 

 hundred, (equal to six quintals), in a day. It is of no use to 

 attempt to catch codfish from among a school of haddock, as the 

 latter give the larger fish no chance to take the bait. They feed 

 on all sorts of bottom, muddy as well as hard, and are very gregari- 

 ous in their habits. There are logies among them in spring and 

 summer, but never in autumn. The logy fish are almost invariably 

 affiicted with a sore under the sound-bone, full of pus, and in this 

 case the liver is shrunken and contains no oil, and the stomach is 

 empty. Haddock make a sort of whistling or squeaking noise after 

 being caught. 



These fish are salted and dried, like cod and hake, and no 

 attempt has yet been made among us, to imitate the celebrated 

 Finnan Haddies. 



I must now draw towards a conclusion, having as yet only 

 begun the enumeration of our fishes. I have had time to read but 

 little on the art of catching and curing fish, but one cannot fail to 

 see that a great deal remains to be done among us, in the way of 

 developing and improving our fisheries, and preparing the fish for 

 the most profitable markets. If the proposed negociations with 

 Brazil and other Roman Catholic countries should open up new 

 markets to our staple product, a great deal has yet to be learned by 

 our shore and Labrador fishermen in the way of curing fish for such 

 markets, for that which has been tolerated among the negroes of the 

 Southern States and the West Indies, will not tempt the fastidious 

 palates of the more civilized people, with whom we hope soon to 

 trade. Time forbids my entering on the superior mode of curing- 

 cod, hake, haddock, and pollock, practised by the leading Jei'sey 

 houses, which gives them a decided advantage over us in the fish 

 trade. This point was touched upon by the late ]M. H. Perley, in 

 his interestinsr work on the Fish of British North America. 



