One portion of the cod caught is despatched to Europe in a fresh state, without other preparation than the salting which they receive on the deck of the schooner. But much the greater portion are carried on shore and subjected to further preparation. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Islands, which are granted to the French fishermen on condition that no fortifications are erected on them, is resorted to for the purpose by the French fleet; St. John's, the capital, by the English. The Comte de Gobineau gives an animated picture of the whole process of curing the cod-fish in the "Tour du Monde for 1863." "The French houses which pursue this branch of trade," he says, "belong principally to the Ports of Granville and St. Breuc; and the crews of their ships consist of two very distinct elements; the smaller portion, being specially raised among the fishermen properly so called, they form the aristocracy on board; to these are added a larger number of mere labourers, who are landed on the arrival of the vessel at her port. Their functions are limited to receiving the fish from the boats, opening it, washing off the glutinous matter in the chauffant, putting the liver apart, and laying out the split fish between the layers of salt; finally, subjecting it to the different phases of the drying process on the strand.
"The chauffant is a shed raised upon piles, standing one half in the water and one half on shore; it is constructed of planks and posts, through which the air is suffered to circulate freely, but covered in with some of the ship's sails. Here the process of separating the intestines from the body of the fish, and the salting process are carried on, in the midst of an atmosphere charged with all manner of disgusting smells, for the labourer is by no means delicate, and never thinks of removing the disgusting impurities which he is creating. There he stands, knife in hand, tearing and cutting out intestines and separating vertebræ, his only care being to avoid cutting himself, which is the chief danger he runs, in the midst of odours sufficient to produce suffocation.
"Connected with the platform, on which this rough operation is performed is a cauldron, sunk in the earth, to receive the oil pressed out of the liver. This cauldron is surmounted by a roof some nine feet in height, in the form of an inverted cone. Here the oil which flows from the open way above is suffered to remain, after which it is drawn off into casks.
"The drying sheds, formerly of wood, are now constructed of stone, and in places well exposed to the sun, and especially to the wind, artificial or otherwise. The sun, it is said, does not dry, but scorches; the wind, on the other hand, marvellously fulfils the purpose, and in order to avoid the one and court the other, an apparatus has been invented, consisting of long movable branches, which can be inclined so as to bring the wind directly upon the row of cod, in connection with the sun's rays, which are, indeed, not very formidable in this foggy region."
The cod-fish thus dried at Newfoundland are forwarded for consumption to all parts of the world; but only a small part of the products of the fishery are thus prepared. More than half the produce of the French fleet are sent to France merely salted, by ships which carry salt, bringing back fish in return to Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Cette, where the process of curing is completed. In our home fisheries, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Bertram's account, the greater part of the cod taken are eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of the cod and ling taken on the coast are sent to market cured. The process pursued is very simple: they are brought on shore quite fresh, and are at once split from head to tail, and by copious washings thoroughly cleansed from all particles of blood; a piece of the backbone is cut away; they are drained, and afterwards laid down in long vats, where they are covered with salt, and kept under heavy weights. By-and-by the fish are taken out of the vats; they are once more drained, and carefully brushed, to remove any impurity, and bleached by being spread out singly on the sandy beach, or on the rocks; when thoroughly bleached, they are collected into heaps technically called steeples, and when the bloom, or whitish appearance, comes out on the fish, they are ready for the market.
The cod is one of our best-known fishes, and was at one time much more plentiful and cheap. It is a deep-water fish, found in all northern seas, and in the Atlantic, but never in the Mediterranean. It is extremely voracious, greedily eating up the smaller denizens of the ocean. It grows to a large size, and is very prolific, as most fishes are. A cod-roe has been found more than once to be half the gross weight of the fish, and specimens of the female cod have been caught with upwards of eight millions of eggs. The fish spawn in mid-winter: but here our information ceases; when it becomes reproductive is unknown. Dr. Bertram thinks that it is at least three years old before it is endowed with breeding power.
The growth of the cod is supposed to be very slow. Dr. Bertram quotes the authority of a rather learned fisherman of Buckie, who had seen a cod which had got enclosed in a large rock pool, and he found that it did not grow at a greater rate than eight to twelve ounces per annum, though it had abundance of food.
On our own coast two modes of fishing are in common use: one by deep-sea lines, on each of which hooks are fastened at distances twelve feet apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the Cornish coast "snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to each end of the long line, to keep them from entanglement with each other. The hooks are baited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the lines are shot across the tide about the time of slack water, in from forty to fifty fathoms, and are hauled in for examination after six hours.
An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing by Mr. Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches above the hook, which suspends the bait, and exhibits it more clearly to the fish by the motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not engaged in hauling, shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, holding one in each hand, each armed with two hooks, kept apart by a strong piece of wire. A heavy weight attached to the lower end of each line keeps it steady near the ground, where the fish principally feed. Enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, and coal-fish, with pollack, hake, ling, and torsk, are taken in this way all round our coast. Of cod-fish alone four hundred to five hundred and fifty have been taken in ten hours by one man, and eight men have taken eighty score of cod in one day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five and twenty fathoms water. Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even the Essex, coasts, have yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught as described, and are stowed in well-boats, in which they are carried to Gravesend, whence they are transhipped into market-boats, and sent up to Billingsgate by each evening tide; the store-boats not being allowed to come up higher, as the fresh water would kill the fish.