They soon learned that the best baits they could obtain were fresh or 

 lightly- salted herring, plentiful during the spring fishing season on the coasts 

 of Newfoundland, the capelin, whose massed schools appeared on the shores 

 of Newfoundland and Saint- Pierre and Miquelon in June, and the squid, the 

 most efficacious bait, which appeared on the banks in July and intermittently 

 until September. 



On the other hand, until the last years of the 19th century, the tonnage of 

 the cod vessels did not permit them to stow in the holds, for the return to 

 France, all the fish captured in the course of an average season. It was nec- 

 essary then to arrange an intermediary port of unloading. 



It was these two necessities, loading bait andunloading the first fish caughl 

 which, for three-quarters of a century, made the port of Saint-Pierre an in- 

 dispensable base for the cod fishery. 



Leaving their ports of outfitting during the first days of March, the bank 

 vessels touched first at Bordeaux or Lisbon to load salt, then sailed for Saint- 

 Pierre. With the development of outfitting at Saint-Pierre, the custom in- 

 creased of taking as passengers on the vessels of the metropolitan fleet of the 

 great fishery, in conditions the least comfortable and hygienic, crews des- 

 tined for the vessels at Saint- Pierre which outfitted locally for the French 

 Shore and the banks. 



At Saint-Pierre, the captains bought the herring which would be the bait 

 for the first of the fishery and which was brought from the Newfoundland 

 coast, particularly from Fortune and Plaisance Bays, by small boats called 

 "galopers. " As soon as provisioned, the vessels left for the banks. 



The first fishery ended in June. The vessels rallied at Saint-Pierre 

 where they unloaded the green- salted cod. This, which was prime cod, was 

 immediately loaded on ocean-going sailing vessels, the "chasseurs", which 

 made delivery to France or the Antilles. 



Capelin, the bait for the. second fishery, was bought during the course of 

 this unloading. It came, for the most part, from Newfoundland, but not, like 

 the herring, entirely; for the capelin fishery, requiring for gear only a light 

 seine, is also practiced on the shores of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, so that 

 a part of the supply could be obtained from the local fishery. Some captains, 



75 



