The log cabin Democrat., 1909-11-02

blind obedience to tie ted in stinct of their race.
 The great product Of l. 'nr is it's fisheries Strip if of its rrod- ucts and you have lei Gg but mosquitoes and barren : In it's fisheries, which amount ually to many hundreds of thous s of dol lars, it is easy to see wha has been the bone of contention iu the past years between England, Trance and the United States. The business of catching fish is carried oU for the most part by the large ard enterprise ing houses of England with their branch offices in Newfoundland. Each house has it's dependents whom it fur nishes in the spring with food, ap- paratus and boats necessary to ob- tain a catch. In the fall the accounts are settled. If the season has been a remuneratiye one the house obtains an ample return for it's investment; but if, as often it happens. the season has been for some reason an unprofit- able one, the house stands it's loss, pa tiently looking to another year to re- imburse it for it's previous unprofita- ble outlay. Little money ever passes into the hands of the catchers of cod. It is a matter of barter wholly, and the balance of credit is always on the side of the house. Yet, with it's mani fest disadvantages, the system is great practical help to the fisherman himself, since it frees him from direct competition in the open markets and guarantees him a home and means of support, which if left to himself he might often lack
 The method of catching fish differs from that employed by any other peo- pie except the Scandinavians. It was introduced from the Norwegian coast over 20 years ago and first put into operation off the shores of Newfound- land near St. Johns. There it was so successful that trap fishing is now employed along the whole Labrador coast. The trap consists of an i'm mense well, built in the form of a square, measuring eight fathoms to a side. These sides, which are made of strong netting. are connected at the bottom by a flooring of netting, the whole extending from the buoys at the surface to very near the bottom. From the square inclosure thus made a net is sprung to the shore. where it is perpendicular cliff, to serve the pur- pose of leader The fish in their passage to and from the harbor en- counter this leader, and in trying to pass around it enter the trap which they try in vain to leave. The aver age number of fish captured at one haul of the trap is 50 Quintals in a good season, and as two hauls are made in a day the profits are large, especially when the fish sell, as dur ing the last season, at from s3 50 to s4 a quintal.
 The method of pulling the trap Is interesting. A large boat, capable of carrying 40 quintals of fish and manned by six hands. is moored to one corner of the trap and the work of undermining begun, the object be- ing to force the fish into one corner that they may the more easily be transferred to the boat by the dipnet. Beginning at this corner, the bottom and sides of the net are pulled gradu- ally to the sides of the boat, as each new hold reaches the gunwale the preceding one being let go. In this way the fish are gradually forced into the corner, from which they are trans ferred to the boat Oftentimes the sag of the net becomes caught on the bot tom of the boat, which is then literally aground on the shoal of codfish. When the catch is too large for the boat to carry to the cleaning house a bag is fastened to the top line of the net and the fish forced into it, where they remain till the next day, when they are taken at a special trip. A well-equipped trap costs s400, and when badly torn CT, as is sometimes the case in storm. lost altogether, necessitates an additional hardship on the unfortunate owner