im the highest price.

To be sure there were seasons when Skipper Tom was hard put to it to
make ends meet, and a scant diet and a good many hardships fell to his
lot and to the lot of his family. And when he had enough and his
neighbors were in need, he denied himself to see others through, and
even pinched himself to do it.

But he saved bit by bit until, at the age of forty-five, he was able
to purchase a cod trap, which was valued at about $400.00. The
purchase of this cod trap had been the ambition of his life and we can
imagine his joy when finally the day came that brought it to him. It
made more certain his catch of cod, and therefore lessened the
possibility of winters of privation.

It is interesting to know how the fishermen of The Labrador catch cod.
It may be worth while also to explain that when the Labradorman or
Newfoundlander speaks of "fish" he means cod in his vocabulary. A
trout is a trout, a salmon is a salmon and a caplin is a caplin, but a
cod is a fish. He never thinks of anything as fish but cod.

Early in the season, directly the ice breaks up, a little fish called
the caplin, which is about the size of a smelt, runs inshore in great
schools of countless millions, to spawn. I have seen them lying in
windrows along the shore where the receding tide had left them high
and dry upon the land. This is a great time for the dogs, which feast
upon them and grow fat. It is a great time also for the cod, which
feed on the caplin, and for the fishermen who catch the cod. Cod
follow the caplin schools, and this is the season when the fisherman,
if he is so fortunate as to own a trap, reaps his greatest harvest.

The trap is a net with four sides and a bottom, but no top. It is like
a great room without a ceiling. On one side is a door or opening. The
trap is submerged a hundred yards or so from shore, at a point where
the caplin, with the cod at their heels, are likely to run in. A net
attached to the trap at the center of the door is stretched to the
nearest shore.

Like a flock of geese that follows the old gander cod follow their
leaders. When the leaders pilot the school in close to shore in
pursuit of the caplin, they encounter the obstructing net, then follow
along its side with the purpose of going around it. This leads them
into the trap. Once into the trap they remain there until the
fishermen haul their catch.

The fisherman who owns no trap must rely upon the hook and line.
Though somet