allow their schooners to pass.

After the thick flakes have been sawn or cut through, they have to be pushed beneath the firm ice with long poles. The vessels then get out to sea, if possible, through the openings, and work their perilous way to windward. of the vast fields of ice, until they arrive at one covered with the animals of which they are in quest, and which is termed a seal-meadow. The seals are attacked by the fishers, or, more properly speaking, hunters, with firearms, or generally with short, heavy batons, a blow of which on the nose is instantly fatal. The hooded seals sometimes draw their hoods, which are shot-proof, over their heads. The large ones frequently turn on the men, especially when they have young ones beside them, and the piteous cries and moans of the latter are truly distressing to those who are not accustomed to the immense slaughter which is attended with so great a profit. The skins, with the fat surrounding the bodies, are stripped off together, and the carcases left on the ice. The pelts. or scalps are carried to the vessels, whose situation, during a tempest, is attended with fearful danger. Many have been known to be crushed to pieces by the ice closing on them. Storms during the dark night, among vast icebergs, can only be imagined by a person who has been on a lee shore in a gale of wind; but the hardy seal-hunters seem to court such hazardous adventures."1

Less perilous is the calling of the cod-fisher. This is of two sorts. The deep-sea fishery is conducted chiefly by vessels from Europe which come for the The shore-fishery is in the hands of the

season.

1 Martin, vol. i. p. 333.

SEAL-HUNTING AND COD-FISHING.

79

resident population. "An immense number of boats of different descriptions are engaged in the shorefishery; punts, skiffs, jacks or jackasses, western boats and shallops, employing from one to seven men each, according to their size and the distance they may have to sail before they reach their respective fishing-grounds. The punts and small boats are generally manned by two persons, and employed in fishing within a very short distance of the harbours or circles to which they belong. The skiffs, carrying three or four hands, proceed to more distant stations, sometimes twenty or thirty miles. The western boats are larger than skiffs, and usually fish off the entrance of St Mary's Bay. The shallops are still larger craft. The punts and skiffs, constituting what is termed a mosquito fleet,' start at the earliest dawn of day, and proceed to the fishing-grounds, where the cod are expected in great abundance, for at certain seasons they congregate and swim in shoals. These boats generally land their cargoes at the 'stage' at least once a day. The western boats and shallops split and salt their fish abroad, and return to their respective harbours when they have expended all their salt or loaded their craft. The 'stage' is erected on posts, and juts out into the sea, far enough to allow the boats to come to its extremity, for the ready discharge of their cargoes. On the same platform is the salt-house, which is provided with one or more tables, around which are placed wooden seats and leathern aprons for the cut-throats, headers, and splitters. The fish having been thrown from the boats, a man is generally employed to pitch them with a pike from the stage on to the

table before the cut-throat, who rips open the bowels, and, having also nearly severed the head from the body, passes it along the table to his right-hand neighbour, the header, whose business is to pull off the head and tear out the entrails. From them he selects the liver, and in some instances the sound. The head and entrails being precipitated through a trunk into a flat-bottomed boat placed under the stage, and taken to the shore for manure, the liver is thrown into a cask exposed to the sun, where it distils itself into oil, and the remaining blubber is boiled to procure an oil of inferior quality. After having undergone this operation, the cod is next passed across the table to the splitter, who, in the twinkling of an eye, cuts out the backbone as low as the navel. For the next process the cod are carried in hand-barrows to the salter, by whom they are spread in layers upon the top of each other, with a proper quantity of salt between each layer. In this state the fish continue for a few days, when they are again taken in barrows to a square wooden trough, full of holes, which is suspended from the stage head in the sea. The washer stands up to his knees in this trough, and rubs the salt and slime off the cod with a soft mop. It is then taken to a convenient spot and piled up to drain. On the following day or two it is removed to the fish-flakes, and there spread in the sun to dry, being piled up in small faggots at night. When sufficiently dried, the cod are stored up in warehouses, ready for exportation." In 1867, 815,088 quintals of cod-fish, thus cured, were exported.

1 Martin, vol. i. pp. 334, 335.

CHAPTER VII.

FRENCH NORTH AMERICA.

THE FRENCH IN NORTH AMERICA-THE COLONY OF NEW FRANCESAMUEL CHAMPLAIN THE PROGRESS OF THE COLONY-WARS WITH THE INDIANS AND THE ENGLISH-THE CONTESTS BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH COLONISTS-THE ENGLISH CONQUESTS OF NOVA SCOTIA, CAPE BRETON, AND CANADA.

[1524-1760.]

IN 1524 Giovanni Verazzano, a Florentine in the service of France, went on a voyage in search of the north-west passage to Cathay. Knowing what Cabot had to find out for himself, that America stood in the way, he sailed across the Atlantic to the west of Carolina, intending thence to follow the northward course of the shore. This he did, making curious acquaintance with the natives whom he passed, until he reached Nova Scotia. There, rightly judging that he had already made discoveries of sufficient importance, he abandoned his first intention, and, passing the eastern side of Newfoundland, he returned to France. proposal that all this great territory should at once be appropriated by King Francis I. was not adopted; but ten years afterwards, in 1534, Francis sent out another exploring expedition under Jaques Cartier. Cartier first visited Newfoundland, and nearly circumnavigated it; and then passed through the Gulf of St Lawrence into Chaleur Bay, so named by him

F

His

because of the summer heat which he found there. On its shore he erected "a fair high cross," from which was suspended a shield marked with a fleurde-lys, and the words, "Vive le Roi de la France," in token that the country was henceforth the property of his master. Going home in the autumn, he was next year sent to prosecute his discoveries. He entered the St Lawrence river, and, passing the site of Quebec, proceeded to a hill from which he had so fair a prospect of the surrounding country that he called it Mont-Royal, now Montreal. Hearing the natives talk of their "canada," or huts, he supposed that to be the name of the country. On his return to France he urged its immediate colonization. To that, however, Francis I. did not consent, and after two feeble efforts made by a French nobleman, the Seigneur de Roberval, Canada was undisturbed by Europeans for more than fifty years.

But it was not forgotten. In 1598 Henry IV. sent a party of convicts, under the Marquis de la Roche, to explore and colonize New France, as Canada was then styled. They seem not to have gone so far, but, halting at Sable Island, near Nova Scotia, to have there lived miserably, until seven years afterwards, when, in pity for their state, the survivors, twelve in number, were allowed to go back to France. Before that, in 1600, King Henry had granted a patent for the more orderly colonization of the North American continent, and in 1603 an expedition was sent out under the guidance of the famous Samuel Champlain. That expedition was only planned for exploring the country. Champlain proceeded to the St Lawrence river and tracked its course as far as