The Opelousas courier., 1883-01-20

%The Rhing feet of Cancale. both for
Gedging oysters and catching fish,
nuHJ5eEs more than 200 lugger.ribbed
craft Of small tonnage. These boats are
owned partly by single individuals,
partly by their crews, who have dubbed
together for copartnership. Their
tackle and gear cost as much as the
boats and sails; the nets, which are
chiefly made at Nantes, being the great
hem of expense. The seine is never
used; the trawl, which is fitted with q
huge head-bagor receptacle, being the
sort of snare generally adopted. Each
boat has a functionary called a mis-
tress:" that is, a woman who has cons
tracted, under certain conditions, for
the sale of the take of the craft. The
crew have, therefore, nothing to do
with the disposal of the fish. The pro-
duce of the sale effected by the ''mis-
tress'' is generally divided into five
parts-tWo to the owner or owners of
Che boat, n to the skipper and two to
the crew, the woman having previous
ly deducted her legitimate profits.
The life of q 5Cancalais," as
these fishermen dub themselves, is
one even more rife with danger
than that of others of their calling.
The Bay of Mont st. Michel is one of
the most perilous seas in the world.
Equinoctial tides rise in it to the height
of fifty feet, and ordinary tides to thir-
ty-fve feet. The distance between high
and low water marks is more than six
miles in n places, and the rapidity
Df the currents, especially ON a stormy
asE, understandable. Quicksands, too,
are numerous, and a boat shoaled on
one ct them during ebb-tide has little
chance of its crew being saved; as re-
CARDS itself, none. In calm weather
1se boats fish in the shallowest waters,
their keels occasionally heeling in the
MAD; and here they take soles, turbot,
hDree, brill and skate in considerable
quantities. Government forbids fishing
Within a mile. of the shore; but so soon
MS NIGHT sets in and screens the fisher
men and their fleets from the look-outs
Of the steam sgunboat at Granville and
the eoast-guard sailing schooner at
Cancale, the boats are run within the
prescribed limits, and the forbidden
Huit is tasted. Oysters are allowed
W Nc b1ACA SA1y Ou CC1 tdlA ubyS db
certain times of the year, a strict watch
heing kept by the two vessels above,
mentioned, from which signals are
made when dredging is to commence
and to cease. Fishing proper, how
over, goes on all the year, the only re-
Btricsion, with the exception of the
axed distance from shore, as already
mentioned, being that of mailage, or
size of the meshes of the nets. Meshes
wider by a fraction of an inch only,
having been ordered by the Govern
Enent to be used and their use continued
Tor q few years, brought the population
pf Cancale to the verge of starvation,
fishes that We're entangled before escap-
ing now. In fact, SO momentous a
question is this one of mailage
. class of individuals who earn their
living from the depths of the sea that
candidates for State or municipal offices
Invariably promise the electors to OBJ
tain for them the privilege of smaller
meshes for the fishing nets, that prom
ise, whether carried out or not, being
the only safe "cardn for securing u c
cess. Mailage Is the bug-bear of Can
Calais.-FreDh Paper.