OPERATIONS DURING THE FISHING SEASON. 233

with the fish to the respective merchants. The last fish brought home by the vessels being, like that sent in the autumn from Labrador, green, is discharged, on its arrival, into vats, or troughs, attached to the stages, and the salt washed off, when it is thrown on the stage, and piled into a water-horse to drain, before drying. The fish cured in the northerly parts of Labrador, is chiefly prepared in the cold dry air.

The western fishery, carried forward on the west coast of Newfoundland, is also, by treaty, abandoned to the French.

Whenever the planter settles his account in the fall with his merchant, and pays the wages of his servants, he prepares for winter, laying in provi- sions, &c., and in the following spring he resumes the same laborious course of employment that occu- pied him during the preceding year.