X. 
PROVINCETOWN. 
Early the next morning I walked into a fish-hov/? 
near our hotel, where three or four men were eng^r/A 
in trundling out the pickled fish on barrows, and spread¬ 
ing them to drj. They told me that a vessel h^d lately 
come in from the Banks with forty-four thous<23f>d codfish. 
Timothy Dwight says that, just before hr arrived at 
Provincetown, “a schooner came in frori the Great 
Bank with fifty-six thousand fishj almost one thousand 
five hundred quintals, taken in a single voyage ; the 
main deck being, on her rttorn, eight inches under water 
in calm weather.’’ The cod in this fish-house, just ou^ 
of the pickle, lay packed several feet deep, and thre'' 
or four men stood on them in cowhide boots, piecin’'^ 
them on to the barrows with an instrument which had a 
single iron point. One young man, who chewed tobacco, 
spat on the fish repeatedly. Well, sir, thought I, when 
that older man sees you he will speak to you. But 
presently I saw the older man do the same thing. It re¬ 
minded me of the figs of Smyrna. “ How long does it 
take to cure these fish ? ” I asked. 
Two good drying days, sir,” was the answer. 
I walked across the street again into the hotel to break¬ 
fast, and mine host inquired if I would take “ hashed fish 
