Fur Trade and Fisheries 13 
     
    
   
   
    
     in the same way. Each one sets to work after the fisher- 
     
     men have come, and a boy prepares the supper whilst 
     
     the fish are being dressed. Having finished this they go 
     
     to supper, and then to sleep. The boatswains go also to 
     
     fill their barrels and baskets in order to set out the next 
     
     day in the morning, to return to the sea as usual. 
     
    

    
     The dégrat will last sometimes eight, ten, or fifteen 
     
     days before the fish move to another place. All the fish- 
     
     ermen are liable to this dégrat. If there are several ves- 
     
     sels in one harbour they do not always go to make their 
     
     dégrat at the same place; that depends upon the fancy 
     
     of the captain, if he has experience, or according as the 
     
     older masters of boats may counsel him. These relate 
     
     the good fortune which has befallen them at this same 
     
     juncture, when they were obliged to make dégrat. There 
     
     is much chance in this, unless one has a great experi- 
     
     ence in the fishery and has long frequented the coast 
     
     and all the harbours in which (vessels) are placed for 
     
     making the fishery. For the Cod does not go every year 
     
     to the same place. The fishery which will be one year 
     
     upon one bank will be exterminated by the great number 
     
     who go there together. Thus the year following the 
     
     fishery is obliged to seek another bank, where the Cod 
     
     will not have occurred the preceding year.* 
     
    
   
   
    
     But it had long been the dream of the more enter- 
     
     prising captains of this industry to establish a sed- 
     
     entary fishery for which their countrymen would be 
     
     encouraged to settle at various strategic points, and 
     
     to erect permanent stages for drying fish, together 
     
     with such storehouses as were necessary for the con- 
     
     duct of the fishery and for the sustenance of the 
     
    
   
   
    
     1 Pub. Champ. Soc., No. 2, pp. 324-326.