This immense bank is a vast mountain in the sea, more than 400 miles long, 150 miles broad, and, in depth of water, from twenty to sixty fathoms. It was first discovered in the reign of Henry the Seventh; and in 1548 an act of parliament was passed, by which all Englishmen were permitted to traffic and fish on the coasts of Newfoundland and the adjacent banks, without payment of any duty. In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of the island of Newfoundland in the name of Queen Elizabeth; and the first English company that associated to settle a colony there was incorporated by a patent of King James the First, in 1609. The Newfoundland fishery at present gives freight to about 300 vessels, from 100 to 200 tons' burden each. These are chiefly fitted out from the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, from Ireland, and some ports of the English Channel, as Pool, Dartmouth, &c. When these vessels arrive at the fishery, a kind of gallery is formed, which reaches from the main-mast to the poop, and sometimes even from one end of the ship to the other. This is furnished with tuns stove in at one end, into which the fishermen get, to be sheltered from the weather, their heads being covered with a kind of roof fixed to the top of the tun. The mode of fishing is by hook and line only; and the baits are herrings, a small fish called capelins (209), shell fish, or pieces of sea fowl. Each man can catch only one fish at a time; yet an expert fisherman has sometimes been known to take 400 in a day. As soon as the fish are caught the tongues are cut out, the heads cut off, and the liver, entrails, and spine, are all taken out. After this they are salted and piled, for some time, in the holds of the vessels, and then packed in barrels for sale, under the name of _green_ or _wet cod_. When the fish are to be dried, they are conveyed in boats to the shore, where they are headed, cleansed, and salted, upon stages or scaffolds erected for that purpose. They are subsequently spread on the shore to dry; these are called _dry cod_, and constitute the principal object of the Newfoundland trade. The chief markets to which the fish are conveyed are those of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Levant. The most important fishing banks of Europe are in the neighbourhood of Iceland, Norway, and the Orkney Islands; and the Dogger-bank, and Well-bank, betwixt this country and Holland.