"haul," as the process of overhauling the net and passing it under the
boat is called, by which the fish are crowded up into one corner where
they can be scooped out by the dozen, that they did not notice that
the enormous catch was being brought to the surface directly under
them till their own boat began to rise out of the water, actually
being grounded on the immense shoal of codfish.

It was a strange sensation and makes a strange story. All the time
that we were storm-stayed at Webeck the "spurt" continued, and the
trap owners were tired but jubilant. The "hand-lining" crews were
correspondingly depressed, for, though so plenty, not a cod would bite
a hook. It is this reason, that is, because an abundance of food
brings the cod to the shores in great numbers and at the same time
prevents them from being hungry, that led to the abandonment of
trawling and the universal adoption of the trap method. We did not see
a single trawl on the coast, and it is doubtful if there was one there
in use.

During these spurts, the day's work just begins, in fact, after the
hard labor of rowing the heavy boats out, perhaps two miles, to the
trap, hauling, mending the net, loading and unloading the fish--always
a hard task and sometimes a very difficult one on account of the heavy
sea--has been repeated three or four times; for the number of fish is
so great that the stage becomes overloaded by night, and the boat
crews then have to turn to and help take care of the catch and clear
the stage for the next day's operations. Till long after midnight the
work goes merrily on in the huts or shelters over the stages, for the
hard work then means no starvation next winter in the Newfoundland
homes, and the fish are split, cleaned, headed, salted and packed with
incredible rapidity.