Ise the Bye

"around the circle" - Fogo, Twillingate, and Morton's Harbour are places on three different islands on the North shore of Newfoundland. If you pulled into all three and returned to the first you would have travelled in a circle.

"Sods and rinds to cover yer flake" - Flakes were spread on the beaches to dry cod fish that had been salted.

Sods refers to grass sods. However, they were not used to cover flakes and are not related to flakes at all. Sods were used in many different areas of early Newfoundland life. For example, sod huts were use to smoke fish, but in the context of the line it makes little sense.

Rinds refers to birch bark, but in the context of the line it refers to birch boughs. Birch boughs (tree branches) were used to cover the flakes so the drying fish would not get burned by the sun. Also, the boughs helped to keep the flies off the fish, because no one likes maggoty fish.

Justus Elgar
(a former resident of Twillingate Isle)