The Cod Fishery in Various Countries. 31 



second a grade lower, the third is intended for the stomachs 

 of negroes, and the fourth, which is incapable of keeping, is 

 used at home. 



Dun fish are prepared in the following manner : — ■ 

 They are caught early in spring, and often in February. 

 The cod are taken in deep water, split, and slack salted ; 

 then laid on a pile for two or three months in a dark 

 store, covered for the greatest part of the time with salt 

 hay, or grass, and pressed with some weight. In April or 

 May they are opened and piled again as close as possible 

 in the same dark store till July or August, when they are 

 fit for use. 



The cod sent to hot countries are packed by screw 

 power into small casks called " drums ; " those which go to 

 the Mediterranean are usually exported in bulk. Large 

 quantities of dried codfish are shipped to Brazil, and there 

 is hardly an inhabited corner of that vast empire where the 

 Newfoundland cod is not to be found, being carried on the 

 backs of mules from the seacoast into the most distant 

 provinces of the interior. The negroes of the West Indies 

 welcome it as a grateful addition to their vegetable diet. 

 To all parts of the Mediterranean it finds its way ; Italians, 

 Greeks, and SiciHans equally relishing the produce of the 

 sea harvest. The Spaniards and Portuguese are our best 

 customers, and all over the sunny peninsula the " bucalo " 

 is a standing dish. In the warmer regions of the earth the 

 people seem to have a special liking for the dried and 

 salted cod, and to them it is an almost indispensable article 

 of food. 



The air bladder, or as it is called, cod's sound, which 

 consists almost entirely of pure gelatine, sells at a high rate 

 in any market into which it has been introduced. Cod's 

 tongues and sounds form, even at present, a considerable 



