A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1783 Excerpt: ... to the spot where the ships are to take in their B lading.. The first thing to be done after landing is to to cut wood and erect or repair scaffoldsf. All hands are employed in this work. When it is finished, the company divide; one half of the crew stays ashore to cure the fish, and the other goes on board in small boats. The boats designed for the fishery of the caplain carry four men, and those for the cod three. These last boats, of which there is the greatest number, sail before it is light, generally at the distance of three, four, or five leagues from the coast, and return in the evening to the scaffolds near the sea-side, where they deposit the produce of the day. When one man has taken off the cod's head and gutted it, he gives it to another, who flices it and puts it in salt, where it remains eight or ten days. After it has been well washed, it is laid on gravel, where it is left till it is quite dry. It is then piled up in heaps, and left for some days to drain. It is then again laid on the strand, where it continues drying, and takes the colour we fee it have in Europe. There are no satigues whatever to be compared with the labours of this fishery, which hardly leaves those who work at it four hours rest in the night. Happily, the salubrity of the climate preserves the health of the people under such severe trials; and these labours would be thought nothing of, if they were better rewarded by the produce. But But there are some harbours where the strand is at so great a distance from the sea, that a great deal of time is lost in getting to it; and others, in which the bottom is of solid rock, and without Varec, so that the fish do not frequent them. There are others again, where the fish grow yellow from a mixture of fresh water with the salt;...