The progress., 1904-07-09
CARIBOU BAIT FOR GOLDFISH
Thousands Are Slaughtered in Single
Lots for That Purpose in
Newfoundland.

A little schooner, bought In st
Johns, Newfoundland, for the COO
fishery, has made a profitable thing o.
her trip across the gulf by bringing
here full cargo of bait, says Gasps
Basin (Can.) report in the New York
Sun. This year the stored supply o.
caplin, sQuid and other sea offal Il
small. and the big packing houses
controlling the market are setting q
high, almost prohibitive value upon it
To good sportsmen, it seems to be
shame to kill such noble creatures as
the caribou simply for cod bait, but
that was the material the schooner
brought. 1t affords startling idea OF
the game supply of the old colony tc
learn that 1900 or 5000 of these valua-
BILE animals have been butchered in
Newfoundland in the last few weeks
In one instance, fishermen are said tc
have surrounded an immense herd
which visited the seashore and to have
killed every member of it. They were
understood to have been about 5000 in
the lot
hC HluCo diC PldttASoiiy
In the spring, as the hair ducts are en-
larged to release the winters coat, and
the numberless holes thus formed run
right through the skin. But none OF
the meat will go to waste, as the cod
fishing disposes of hundreds of tons OF
bait, for which, as is already too thor
oughly known, venison answers very
well indeed.
1t had been surmised that the fish
cry which has just begun would be un-
usually profitable, because of the phe-
nomenally high price of codhver oil
last winter. But the Norwegian sea-
son, which is earlier than ours, must
have been very favorable, as the mar
ket price of oil has run down, until
now it is quoted at being only one-f1fth
higher than it was this time last year.
However, stocks of fish are low the
world over, and there will be larger
feet than ever off the Banks, and at
the old places along the coast for the
next month or two. Yhe great dealing
and curing concerns are all enlarging
their flakes" or outdoor drying SCOT
folds. to meet the increased harvest
which may reasonably be expected to
be brought in by the large number of
boats fitted out this year
Just now the fishing is exceptionally
1aborious because of the great depth
at which the cod are found. The best
fish are found far downAgreat, large
faxed, thick fleshed, small paunched
fellows. They are drawn up by main
ly so. by the time they are hauled to
the surface, owing to the difference
in the pressure of the water.
Their tremendous gills show what
prodigious quantities of water they
have to breathe out to obtain their air
supply at the great depth at which
they live. 1t is probable also that they
derive nourishment from the minute
marine organisms they strain out of
the water as 1t pours through their
gills. Some of the men believe that
these great cod are of different varie-
ty from the smaller ones commonly
caught in shallower water
They are not dainty feeders by any
means. On the smaller boats the bait
is not always we'll preserved, and is at
best an odd lot of small herrings, ends
of meat, chopped dog fish, young devil
fish and other odds and ends found in
the pound nets.
But the big fellows take it all the
same, and when the location is we'll
chosen come up heaving and painting
every time the hook is thrown out
Their omnivorous voracity is almost
incredible. Bits of leather, marlin
spikes, iron bolts. ball of twine, lead
en- sounding piummets. hoofs of deer
are among the curious things which
dissection shows some of them to have
gathered in.