Galt aeP CLE le ff 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Fur Trade and the Sédentary Fishery 
     
     (la pesche sedentaire) 
     
    
   
   
    
     DURING the seventeenth century Isle Saint Jean 
     
     was included in a number of grants that were made 
     
     to individuals or companies for control of the fur 
     
     trade or the establishment of a sedentary fishery on 
     
     the coasts of Acadia and in the Gulf of St. Law- 
     
     rence. 
     
    

    
     The ordinary fishing for dry or green cod had 
     
     been a transient, summer business, conducted by men 
     
     who brought their vessels and supplies from France 
     
     in the spring and returned in the summer or early 
     
     autumn. The green cod were taken on the banks, 
     
     piled and salted on the vessels, and rushed off to their 
     
     markets in Europe. Dry cod were taken to a beach 
     
     on some island or on a convenient point of the main- 
     
     land to be cured, after which they also were hurried 
     
     off to market. One of the most interesting features 
     
     of the dry cod fishery was the dégrat, a name which 
     
     has been perpetuated in more than one place in 
     
     eastern Canada. This mode of fishing is described 
     
     by Denys as follows: 
     
    
   
   
    
     There are scarcely any harbours where there are not 
     
     several vessels. At the Isle Percée I have seen as many 
     
     as eleven, since this is the best place for the fishery. 
     
     This number of vessels which are found in one place 
     
     nevertheless obtain fish. There are places where there 
     
     are taken every day fifteen, twenty, and thirty thou-