SEALING VOVAGES. 225 Thevats for cod oil are made of strong planks,dove- tailed at the ends, and strengthened with iron clamps. Whatever water is mixed with the cod blubber, is afterwards allowed to run out by a plug-hole at the bottom, while the oil, floating on the top, runs off at different holes, and is guided into casks by leather spouts. The first that runs off the seal blubber is the virgin, or pale oil, and the last, the brown oil. The blubber fritters are afterwards boiled in metal cauld¬ rons, to obtain the remaining oil from them. The planters sell their seal-pelts to the merchants, who manufacture the oil, and ship it off in hogsheads, principally to England .* The seal-skins are spread and salted in bulk, and afterwards packed up in bundles of five each for ship¬ ping. Seals are still caught at Newfoundland and ¬ dor, on the plan first adopted, by strong nets set across such narrow channels as they are in the habit of passing through. In the beginning of June, the cod-fishery com¬ mences. The bank fishing is now, from various causes, abandoned by the English to the Americans and French, although the political value of ¬ land, as a nursery for seamen, depended very much on this fishery. It was carried on by vessels fitted out in England ; and the people employed in it being * It is said, that the water pumped out of vessels carrying oil, always calms the surrounding sea ; and that the sea on the banks was made smooth and level during the fishing season when the bank fishery predominated. VOL . T. P