GADEANS AND PLEUEOlfECTS. 343 



its weight of salt, and then gives it over to the last 

 man, who arranges aU. the carcases in rows, and finally 

 barrels them. That part of the proceedings of the ' Petit 

 Andres' and ' Trois Echelles' who first operate upon him, 

 is given by Lacepede with the precision of an historian 

 describing the execution of some state prisoner : ' L'et6- 

 teur saisit d'abord la morue, en place a faux la t^te sur 

 le bord de la table, la cerne avec un couteau h, deux 

 tranchans, nomme couteau h, et^ter ; quand la morue est 

 decoUee, I'eteteur enleve toutes les entraOles, et ay ant fini 

 son operation U pousse le corps &, rhabUleur,* qui le 

 saisit de la main gauche et qui tient de la main droite le 

 couteau k habiller,t dont les fonctions consistent h. Vov.- 

 vrir depuis la gorge jusqu'k Tanus/ All the fish, how- 

 ever, are not saltedj stock-fishj are merely sun-dried, 

 and a good many used to be towed away alive in perfo- 

 rated boxes, care being taken first to prick the swim- 



* The terms severally employed to express the operation of 

 cutting open different fish are strangely various : thus the reader 

 will remember, when he puts the slice into a fish, that he gobbets 

 trout, truncheons eel, fins chub, tusks barbel, splates pike, solays 

 bream, and sides haddocks. 



t ' The sun during the summer months is very scorching in 

 Newfoundland : the nights and mornings being temperate and 

 pleasant, so that the operation of drying is generally a very easy 

 one.' 



J This name, which is also given to ling and haddock similarly 

 preserved, is either so called because the carcase is spread-eagled 

 across transverse sticks in the drying, or because it is as hard as 

 a stick, and recLuires a bastinado before it can be dressed. Im- 

 mense quantities of this fish are exported from the north. ' Gules, 

 a stock-fish argent, crowned, or, are the appropriate arms of Ice- 

 land ; these arms are borne by the Kings of Denmark in the 

 royal achievement, illustrating in the simplest manner the source 

 of a chief part of their revenue. The Bawdes' of Bedfordshire 

 quarterings exhibit three headless fish, presumed, perhaps not un- 

 warrantably, to be stock-fish.' — Moule. 



