Class IV. COMMON COD FISH. 235 



French and Bretons, 150, or seven thousand 

 tons. 



English, from 30 to 50. 

 Mr. Anderson, in his Dictionary of Com- 

 merce, I. 363, says, that the French began to 

 fish there as early as 1536; and we think we 

 have somewhere read, that their first pretence 

 for fishing for cod in those seas, was only to 

 supply an English convent with that article. 



The increase of shipping that resort to those 

 fertile banks, is now unspeakable: our own 

 country still enjoys the greatest share, which 

 ought to be esteemed our chiefest treasure, as it 

 brings wealth to individuals, and strength to the 

 state. 



All this immense fishery is carried on by the 

 hook and line only ; * at first the fishermen use 

 pork or bits of sea fowl for a bait ; but as they 

 proceed, they supply themselves with shell 

 fish, called Clams, which are found in the belly 

 of the cod ; the next bait is the lobster ; after 

 that the herring and the launce, which last till 



* We have been informed that they fish from the depth of 

 fifteen to sixty fathoms, according to the inequality of the Bank, 

 which is represented as a vast mountain, under water, above five 

 hundred miles long, and near three hundred broad, and that sea- 

 men know when they approach it by the great swell of the sea, 

 and the thick mists that impend over it. 



