COD, 
150 
ginning at the head, and opening it down to the 
tail ; at the next cut he takes out the larger part of 
the back bone, which falls through the floor into 
the water. He then shoves the fish off* the table, 
which drops into a kind of hand-barrow, which, as 
soon as filled, is carried off to the salt-pile. The 
header also flings the liver into a separate basket, for 
the making of train oil, used by the curriers, which 
bears a higher price than whale-oil. 
“ In the salt-pile, the fish are spread upon one 
another, with a layer of salt between. Thus they 
remain till they have taken salt ; and then are car- 
ried and the salt is washed from them by throwing 
them off* from shore in a kind of float called a 
pound. As soon as this is completed, they are 
carried to the last operation, of drying them ; which 
is done on standing flakes, made by a slight wattle, 
just strong enough to support the men who lay on 
the fish, supported by poles, in some places as high 
as twenty feet from the ground : here they are ex- 
posed with the open side to the sun; and every 
night, when it is bad weather, piled up five or six 
on a heap, with a large one, his back or skinny 
part uppermost, to be shelter to the rest from rain, 
which hardly damages them through his skin, as 
he rests slanting each way to shoot it off*. When 
they are tolerably dry, which in good weather is 
in a week’s time, they are put in round piles, of 
eight or ten quintals each, covering them on the 
top with bark. In these piles they remain three or 
