Digby 
inimitable fragrance, — the fragrance that lin- 
gers about the flakes when its form is no longer 
there. It sends forth a clean appetising odour 
very different from the fishy incense that per- 
vades Provincetown, that mingled odour of 
fresh, stale, and salt fish with a flavouring of tar 
and bilge-water, the memory of which pursues 
the stranger, but does not fill him with emo- 
tions of delight. 
The memory of the fragrant Digby fish- 
flakes is a pleasure. Digby is so exquisitely 
clean, the air from Fundy is so abundant and 
clear, that the only rivals to the odour of the 
drying cod are the salt smell of the seaweeds 
at low tide and the fragrance from the sur- 
rounding flower-gardens. 
Whether the sailor men like it or not, they 
are obliged to keep ship and wharf clean when 
in Digby. The law gives them a sharp prod 
in the form of a fine if they grow negligent. 
The great winds are a wholesome purifier of 
both ship and town, but even so, the cleanliness 
of the fishing-schooners as they come in loaded 
is something of a surprise. It is something 
of a surprise too to see the cod put through 
his phases, from the shining fish that comes 
9 
