When Joe Bat’s point you are abreast,
Fogo Harbour bears due west;
It’s then your course that you must steer
Till Brimstone Head do appear.
And when Old Brimstone do appear,
Then Dean’s Rock you need not fear.
CHAPTER IV
THE COD FISHERIES OF NEWFOUNDLAND
Perhaps you have thought, as I did before coming here, that fish are fish, all the world over. But in Newfoundland fish are cod. The existence of the other finny creatures in the sea is recognized, but they are referred to only by their proper names. There is a story that a Newfoundlander was asked if there were any fish in a certain stream.
“No, there are no fish in here,” was the reply, “nothing but trout.”
The history of Newfoundland is largely the story of its cod fisheries and the contests to possess them. Cabot reported to his royal master that the waters off the Newfoundland coast were so thick with fish as to impede navigation. Not long ago cod were so plentiful that dogs caught them alive in the water as they were crowded upon the beach by the pressure of the thousands behind, and to-day the cod fisheries here are the largest of their kind in the world. Nine tenths of the people of Newfoundland still make their living either directly or indirectly from fish, and eighty per cent. of the export trade comes from them. At one time dried cod formed the national currency, and debts were paid in kind. This fall, as for many years, thousands of fishermen are paying for their spring outfits, and for flour and molasses and pork on which they will subsist during the coming winter, with fish.