indeed. The port was filled with fishing boats.
Hundreds of them were drawn up on the shore, and other hundreds were at
anchor. There were also a number of good-sized vessels and smaller
craft. All along the rocky shore were huge piles of codfish caught that
day. The water was crowded with boats moving in every direction, loaded
with cod.

Alongside the big piles of fish, men dressed in wide trousers and
overalls of leather were busy preparing the codfish. Some were cutting
the heads off and throwing them into a pile, while others were opening
the fish, cleaning them, and then, after flattening them, throwing them
to other men, who salted them. After this operation they were carried to
the warehouses and were ready for drying.

By some of the piles men opened and cleaned the fish and tied them
together by twos. After this they were hung on frames or poles. In other
places the men divided the cod in halves, taking their spines out, but
kept them connected by their gills. These were also hung on the poles.
When dry the fish is as hard as wood.

The eggs or ova were put into barrels and salted, and Captain Ole
Petersen, who was with me, said to me: "Each barrel contains the ova of
three hundred cod. They are sent to Italy and France and used in the
sardine fisheries of those countries." Other men were busy putting the
livers into barrels, two barrels of fat liver yielding about one barrel
of brown oil. The tongues of the cod were taken out of the heads, put
into barrels and salted.

I visited the warehouses, built partly on piles projecting into the sea.
Along some of these were brigs and schooners loading.

What a sight was the inside of these warehouses! They were filled with
long deep rows of freshly salted codfish, piled higher than a man and
about the same width. These fish were to be put on board ships and
landed upon rocks, there to stay until they were dried and ready to be
shipped to foreign countries. The cod is the gold of the people living
on this desolate land.

The country around was covered with frames upon which fish were hanging.
Nets and lines were seen in every direction on the rocks, left to dry or
ready to be mended. Wherever I turned the place was saturated with the
blood of fish and offal. The sea was covered with offal; thousands of
gulls were flying in every direction and feeding upon it, while great
numbers of eider ducks, as tame as farm ducks, were swimming everywhere
and feeding. They we