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Show A New Bait fur CodlLtb. The Newfoundland bait act, which prohibits the export of bait from that island, has had a most prejudicial effect upon tho French bauk fisheries, the price of fish bait in St. Pierre having been , forced up to an almost prohibitive price. I It is now Btated that three French ships, i instead of going to St. Pierre for bait, fitted themselves out with flat bottomed, round baskets, with a hole at the top : These they sunk in seventy to eighty fathoms, and they were quickly filled i with periwinkles of large size. The shells were smashed on deck and the trawls baited with live periwinkles. Codfish Cod-fish took to these most ravenously, and the vessels sailed for France with full cargoes the first week iu July, instead of October, as usual, thus saving three i months' time and hundreds of dollars in the purchase of bait. If this report is true, the discovery will bring about a i revolution in the system under which the bank fisheries are now carried on. At present the bank fishermen can only fish when they are provided with fresh bait. This necessitates frequent visits to some bait procuring coast, the purchase of bait and of ice to keep it in good condition, con-dition, and therefore the cost, both in time and money, of producing bait is very great If the bait can be caught on one side of the ship and the cod on the other, there is nothing to prevent the fishermen from remaining on the banks during the whole fishing season, and the cost of a trip will be materially reduced. As Newfoundland hus now almost a monopoly mo-nopoly of the bait trade, and her bankers are privileged by law. this discovery will have a serious effect upon the fishing industry in-dustry of the island. Montreal Witness |