COD AND CAPELIN. 179 



bailed out with scoop-nets. At such times these active 

 little fish throw off' from their gleaming sides all the 

 colors of the rainbow. The cod were seen through 

 the transparent water hovering about the outskirts of 

 the school, snapping at any which became separated 

 from their fellows, and following them so near the boats 

 that the men would drive them away with their boat- 

 hooks. After capturing one school, they would row 

 about near shore on the watch for another. The seine- 

 boats differ from others in being narrow and long, from 

 twenty-five to twenty-seven feet in length. 



We here saw specimens of a variety of cod, called 

 " duffy," which may be the same as Professor Wyman's 

 " bull-dog cod." Its head is blunter, the under-jaw is 

 shorter, while the fish is darker than ordinary cod ; the 

 fishermen pronounce them " no good ;" it is possible 

 that such as are taken are simply deformed individuals 

 of the common species. We found, however, that at 

 Hopedale these fish were comparatively common, and 

 taken with the gig by the Eskimo. 



We left Sloop Harbor early in the morning of the 

 2 1 St with a light easterly breeze, but we made only five 

 or six miles, playing 'about the icebergs nearly half the 

 day. The gigantic steps or terraces carved by the shore- 

 ice out of the lofty rocky shore of the islands about 

 here were very remarkable, especially when we saw 

 them in sections. We counted some thirty bergs to- 

 day. While Mr. Bradford was industriously painting 

 them, a party of us went in a boat to Tinker Island, 

 a lofty rock far out to sea, its sides sheer precipices, 

 whose bases were washed by the ceaseless Atlantic 

 swell ; a yawning chasm nearly divides the island in 



