Pagina 214 di 416

The bait industry in St. Pierre is one more or less open to

examination. It is the delight of certain French dealers to go

inside the English three-mile limit, load their vessels with

barrels of herring, and return to St. Pierre. Here they sell them

at magnificent profit to Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Americans.

And, as the British coat of arms is not stamped on herring at

birth, no one can prove that they were not legally procured.

But let a Canadian revenue cutter catch a Frenchman (or American

either, for that matter), dipping herring in any out-of-the-way

inlet, and the owner not only pays a heavy fine, but he often

loses his schooner and his men go to jail for trying to hoist

sail and escape at the last minute.

Code had not reached shore before he had been accosted by fully

half a dozen of these bait pirates. But he passed them, and tying

his dory at the wharf, went on up the street to a legitimate

firm.