Down North and Up Along 
shores, pre-empt all unoccupied places about 
the wharves, and cluster about the cottages 
of the poor. They are seldom level, but 
pursue a wavy, uncertain course, as though, 
gray and decrepit, they were about to give 
up mortal strife and settle in peace to the 
earth beneath. And then the odour of them ! 
Anyone who does not love the faint fragrance 
that clings to the gray old flakes has no kin- 
ship with the ocean. 
During the summer months upon the flakes 
lies the wealth of Digby. Here the codfish is 
spread out to dry. The time of greatest 
ignominy as well as of greatest picturesqueness 
for a codfish is during its season of drying 
upon the flakes. It may then be sat upon 
or stood upon and otherwise misused. It 
loses its identity completely, and nobody feels 
the slightest obligation to show it respect. It 
has lost its fishly and elegant proportions ; 
it is flat, shrunken, saturated with salt, and 
lies, acres of it, spread out on its flakes to 
render to the strong sea-breezes and the heat 
of the sun the last remnant of water in its 
withered form. It gives a quaint colouring to 
the landscape and fills the air with its own 
