Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-23
CATCHING THE COD
Methods and Habits of the Fishermen
of Bleak Newfoundland.
THE MERCHANTS POSE AS LORDS.
Trapping the Fish and Drawing Them on
Board With Hook and Line.
KEEPING A FAMILY ON s125 A YEAR
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.1 ]

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.l
This is the season when the Newfoundland
| fisherman, after mild winter, gets ready to
catch cod. The Observation-Disclosures are un-
like any other fisher folk anywhere. They
think OF nothing but fish, talk nothing but
fish and do nothing but fish.
In Newfoundland training to catch fish
begins as soon as the youngster can waddle.
and the youth thus early introduced to the
only career open to Newfoundlander con-
tinues to fish until he goes to his grave. The
Newfoundland fisherman is the most unam-
bltious mortal in the scheme of creation.
But if he isn't happy he doesn't know it,
which, perhaps, is the next best condition of
mind to keen relish oi present beatitude'
The Newfoundland fisheries are in the con-
troll of the merchants, many of whom are
the agents Of English and French firms. and
up to these merchants the fisherman
looks much as the old-time peasant
looked up to the lord of the manor.
He expects the merchant to furnish him
with fishing outfit on credit, furnish him
with provisions on the same system and
take his pay in fish as soon as fish can be
taken. The merchant accepts the situation
and so the Newfoundland fisheries are oper-
ated. The outfit the merchant furnishes
may amount to 81 900, but the fisherman not
only gets that, but provisions to last him
and his family and associates all through
the fishing season. He pays an exorbitant
price for everything, but he gets it and
doesn't mind that the boots that go down on
the books at 81 could have been bought for
"a cash and that everything else furnished
him is debited in the same ratio. For the
heavier his debt the better care the merchant
will take of him. If storms sweep
the coast and the debtor and mis- outfit are
both lost the merchant is so much out, but
his profits from his other debtors more than
protect him.
THE PROCESS OF FISHING.
Having selected their fishing ground, the
first thing to do is to set the cod-trap. This
contrivance is square of netting, about 90
feet on each side, and with bottom of net
ting at depth of % feet. This is so moored
as to keep it distended. The top OF this
square fence OF netting is kept on the sur
face by floats. and the bottom nearly touches
the sand. There is an opening on the shore
side, and from the upper part Of the gate"
piece of network fencing runs to the bank.
The fish swimming northward along the
shore strike the fence, or "leader," as 1t is
technically called. They swim carelessly
along this into the trap, find themselves
headed off in every direction, and stay there
cruising round and round, but never going
out the way they came in. The cod is as
unrehective as the fisherman and accepts
the situation of the trap without furry.
By and by when the boat goes out with
the fishermen to reconnoiter the fish glass
comes in play. This fish glass is four oot
tube of galvanized iron with pane in one
end, and with the other end fashioned to fit
a fsherman's face. By poking the glass end
down into the water beneath the disturbed
surface, and wedging his face in the open
end, the fisherman can see whether there are
many fish swimming in his trap. If there
are plenty the dip net is used, and the boat
is loaded by dipping the cod out of the trap.
The fish are then taken ashore and there
split and dried by the women and children.
WITH HOOKS AND LINES.
The off shore fisheries are prosecuted in
little schooners of from 80 to $50 tons
burthen. The fish are taken with hook and
line, and the main lookout of these fisher
men is to get bait to suit the fastidious taste
of the cod. The cod will not eat ood out of
season. When it is the Gods time to eat
herring, nothing but herring will entice
him; when it is his time for caplin he must
have that or he declines to hook himself, and
when the squid suits his palate
he will go aboard to be
salted under NO other inducement. All
vessels are provided with paraphernalia Tor
catching bait, but a large dependence is
placed on getting it from the shoremen, and
halt catching is an industry OF itself. A
cove is selected, and as soon as shoal of
herring is discovered seine is stretched
across the outlet. So many herring have
haa,, o1n ut hot how hau HIoHI
by the million, and the receding tide has
left them on acres of the shadows six feet
deep.
With plenty of bait the of-shore fisher
men follow the cod to the coast Of Labrador,
and make trips of two and three months
duration. A good catch for one OF these
boats is 700 or 800 quintals--a quintal being |
112 pounds. Engaged in this sort OF fishery |
are vessels from Newfoundland, the United |
States, France and England, the foreigners
taking their catch directly home.
HE LIVES ON LITTLE.
How the Newfoundland fisherman man. |
ages to live when he isn't fishing is prob |
lem. If after settling with the merchant |
he has S125 lett he considers that he has |
made very prosperous season, and if he
only has half OF that he is not dissatisfied.
Some of that goes in celebration of his re-
turn, and the rest must keep his family un-
til spring. But his diet is salt pork, salt
beef-and little it-fresh fish, Hamburg
bread, tea and molasses. Fresh meat he
knows little or nothing about. Coffee is a
rarity. The ordinary bread of wheat -four
he calls cake, and eats it sparingly. Raisins
he calls figs, and he doesn't often get them.
Duff is his desert on Sundays, and on
great occasions he eats sig duff" Plain
duff is flour, water and lat mixed and
boiled. Fig duff is plain duff with few
raisins in it.
His shelter is on par with his diet. His
home is two-story frame building. A par
tition of boards makes TWO rooms downstairs.
and the same arrangement prevails upstairs
homemade and coarse. The beds are ar
ranged like berths aboard ship.
DON'T TILL THE SOIL.
His wife and children may till patch of
and raise few potatoes, but there
is no other symptom that the fisherman
cares to make the land help the water con-
tribute to his comfort.
Hamburg bread is a peculiar, brown bis
,uit. like leather when it is new and like
granite when it is old. A long time ago it
was imported from Hamburg. Later on,
bakers were imported to make it.
Their descendants bake it now and keep the
method of its manufacture a secret
And so the Newfoundland fisherman lives
IN from year to year. The cod come to his
rap, and the agent of his creditor takes
hem away, pa, ing him a small share and
putting the rest down to the account OF the
rap, and the rest Of the outfit that perhaps
s never fully paid for. j. II. D.
The French- German Fcud.
New York Herald
Bismarck-It's long time between wars,
Ionsieur Garnet