an rather hesitated about leaving his auto in the streets; they had
no chauffeur with them, tried to find a boy who would watch it. For a
wonder none was forthcoming, but two young fishwives, who were standing
near, said they would; when the man came back with his purchases he gave
each of them a five-franc piece, which munificence so astounded them
that they could hardly find words to thank him.

Quantities of fish of all kinds had arrived--some being sold a la criee,
but it was impossible to understand the prices or the names of the
fish--at least for us. The buying public seemed to know all about it.
The fishwives were very busy standing behind the marble slabs with short
thick knives, with which they cut off pieces of the large fish when the
customer didn't want a whole one, and laughing and joking with every
one. Here and there we saw a modern young person in a fancy blouse, her
hair dressed and waved, with little combs, but there were not many. We
bought some soles and shrimps. M. de G. tried to bargain a little for
us, but the women were so smiling and so sure we didn't know anything
about it, or what the current price of the fish was, that we had not
much success.

The trawlers are gradually taking away all the trade from the
old-fashioned fishing-boats. They go faster, carry more and larger nets,
and are, of course, stronger sea-boats. They are not much more
expensive. They burn coal of an inferior quality and their machinery is
of the simplest description. There is not the loss of life with them
that there must be always with the smaller sailing-boats.

Newfoundland is the most dangerous fishing ground, as the men have so
much to contend with--the passing of transatlantic liners and the cold,
thick fogs which come up off the banks--all of them prefer the Iceland
fishing. The cold is greater, but there is much less fog and very few
big boats to be met en route. Few of the Boulogne boats go to
Newfoundland. It is generally the boats from Fecamp and some of the
Breton ports that monopolize the fishing off the Banks. It seems that
men often die from the cold and exposure in these waters. From the
old-fashioned sailing-boats they usually send them off--two by two in a
dory (they don't fish from the big boats); they start early, fish all
day; if no fog comes up, they are all right and get back to their boats
at dark, but if a sudden fog comes on they often can't find their boats
and remain out all night, half froz