finding themselves at Saint-Pierre at the time of the capelin run, caught 

 their supply directly, fishing with their own crews. 



The squid was, from July, the bait for the third fishery, which succeed- 

 ed the second with or without unloading at Saint-Pierre. The captains some- 

 times got this bait at port if the occasion permitted; but, as a general rule, 

 it was on the banks, while fishing, that this cephalapod was caught. 



During a run of squid, pursuing fiercely schools of the migratory fish on 

 which they feed, in ranks sometimes so close that the sea appears rose-tinted, 

 all the available men jumped to the squid gear. This was a small piece of 

 lead barbed with steel hooks. No bait was necessary; it sufficed to paint the 

 lead red or to nickel-plate it in order for the squid to take it and become 

 hooked. This fishing was sometimes done aboard the vessel, the men lining 

 up along the rail and throwing their gear in the water, tying sometimes two 

 or three lures on the same line. More often, the fishermen went out in their 

 dories which, during the day, were tied alongside. 



The squid is a fleeting prey, for its passages are brief, and it is rare 

 when one can capture even on the best days enough to bait all the lines. Thus 

 no opportunity to get them was ever lost by the fishermen. 



At the end of the fishery, in October, most of the boats stopped at Saint- 

 Pierre. They sometimes left there, when the market was right, a part of 

 their catch, generally destined for the Antilles. They made their arrange- 

 ments for the crossing, often unloading their fishing gear to be picked up at 

 the beginning of the next season, and taking on returning passengers. They 

 sailed for the cod ports, Bordeaux for most, Port-au-Bouc for the rest, and 

 then on to their ports of outfitting. 



The Bait-Bill, voted in 1886 by the Newfoundland Parliament, had conse- 

 quences the most important and unforeseen for the bank fishing. 



The authors of the bill had counted on its adoption dealing a mortal blow 

 to the French fishery on the Newfoundland banks, thus obtaining a major ad- 

 vantage for the principal industry of their island. 



In fact, concern was great among the French fishermen. Losing means 

 of obtaining herring, the only bait for the first fishery, it seemed likely, if 

 not condemning their industry to ruin, to at least gravely affect it in obliging 



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