spring2 n OED ~ sb1 6 a spring of the year obs (1530-1828), b (1547-) for sense 1, cp OED 6 f for sense 2; OED 25 ~ flask (1812), ~ hook (1688-), ~ stick (1880) for sense 4; cp EDD 2 (12) ~ heeled Jack 'a highwayman' for sense 5; for combs, in sense 6: DC ~ herring (1861-), ~ salmon (1869-).
1 The first season of the year, freq in phr spring of the year; the period extending from March to May or June regarded as the time of preparation for and prosecution of the cod, herring and seal fisheries; FISHING SEASON, SEASON.
[1611] 1895 PROWSE 126 When April came our spring began. 1620 WHITBOURNE 34 ... or else to hire the like Ship to serve for the passing of people, victuals, and provisions, in the Spring of the yeere. 1708 OLDMIXON 14 The Fishing-season is from Spring to September. [1766] 1976 HEAD 87 There was a greater number of poor Irish Men brought here this Spring from Waterford, than has been known in one year before, for 14 years past. [1794] 1968 THOMAS 173 Poole and Newton Bushell are the Emporiums for the Two Countys [of Devonshire and Dorsetshire]. Lads from the Plow, Men from the Threshing Floor and persons of all sizes. Trades and ages and from the Manufactorys flock annually, in the Spring, to Newfoundland. [1815] 1976 O'NEILL ii, 920 Should he experience that support which he has been taught to hope for, it is his intention in the ensuing Spring, to enlarge his stock very generally. 1913 Nfld Qtly July, p. 30 He spent the Springs of 1884-5 at the ice. 1924 ENGLAND 53 Sometimes a seal hunter, after his travelling expenses are paid, will clear only $15 or $20 for his 'spring.' 1934 Nfld Qtly July, p, 30 In speaking on the seal fishery I quoted an old adage: 'A frosty winter for a fat spring.' [1954] 1966 DOYLE (ed) 28 "I'se the B'y": Codfish in the spring o' the year / Fried in maggoty butter. T 39/40-64 First thing you do in the spring o' the year is go cut a load o' wood. a couple of loads o' wood for to burn, you know, in the summer, aboard the boat an' in the house. 1975 LEYTON 77 Because every other year I used to start to get a bit better in the spring of the year. 1979 Evening Telegram 15 Oct, p. 6 [He] spent nearly seventy springs at the icefields and died in 1961 in his 94th year. 1981 ibid 19 Oct, p. 6 In the spring of the year when [the fishermen] are putting out their cod traps, salmon nets and lobster pots...
2 Used with epithets and numerals to indicate a definite period or particular year, esp in sealing.
1874 Maritime Mo iii, 544-5 Captain Rideout, who has been 'forty springs to the ice' ... admits that the parson is 'a wonderful knowin' man about soils.' [1909] 1916 MURPHY 29 The spring of 1832 was called the spring of the cats,' on account of such a large number of immature seals brought in... 1853—the White Bay spring, 1857—the frosty spring, 1862—the first Green Bay spring, 1838—the spring of the three suns ... the red jacket spring.' 1924 ENGLAND 248-9 Many of the sealers reckon time not by dates, as with us, but by reference to certain springs. 'De disaster spring,' for example, refers to 1914 when the Newfoundland suffered such tragedy and the Southern Cross went down. 'De spring o' the Wadhams' means a certain year when seals were very plentiful off the Wadham Islands. 1971 CASEY 308 A minor event is dated as before or after 'the spring of White Bay' [in 1923 there was a major catch of seals in White Bay]. 1977 Inuit Land Use 225 One year, remembered as the 'Hungry Spring,' rock cod was the only food available. The people would jig for this fish through the ice into the spring when ... a new range of resources becomes available.
3 Phr lose one's spring: to experience a failure at fishing or sealing; cp SUMMER.
[1896] SWANSBOROUGH 34 "The Seal Fishery": They've been kept outside of the ice, / And been driven southward twice; / Have lost a topmast or a yard, / Have lost their spring, and think it hard. 1937 DEVINE 63 A sealer applied for a job in a factory and gave the boss as his reason for coming from Newfoundland to look for work that he had lost his Spring ... The applicant 'was out to the seal fishery with Skipper Sam Blandford in March and April and got no seals.' 1964 Evening Telegram 28 Mar, p. 6 The fishermen found, however, that if the sealing season was late, they could not get off to the Banks in time and were in danger of losing their spring.
4 Designating var devices involving a mechanical spring: spring flask, ~ hook, ~ snare, ~ stick.
[1776] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 207 As they use no measure for their powder, but throw it in by hand, they generally over-charge; a spring-flask, with a ball made up in a cartridge would be a much better way, but those flasks come too high for the Indian market; therefore they are furnished with the cow-horn, such as are provided for ship's use. [1775] ibid ii, 128 I tailed four more [fox traps], shifted the spring-hook, and brought the cod-hook home. [1774] ibid i, 169 We tailed a spring-snare at the lower end of the path. [1774] ibid i, 179 A fox had broken the snare, the spring-stick being too weak.
5 Designating an imaginary prowler with preternatural ability to leap off the ground: spring heel(ed) Jackson, ~ legs, ~ man.
1973 WIDDOWSON 267 Springheeled Jackson—in St John's ... He was supposed to have springs on his shoes and was often seen to jump over fences quite easily. C 69-17 When I was a boy there was sure to be an unknown person roaming around at night. He came in the spring and was referred to as 'springlegs' for those who saw him said that he [bounded] around as if he had springs on his feet ... But it was really believed that such a man was on the prowl and most people took all precautions to keep him away from their homes or children. 1973 WIDDOWSON 392 Spring Legs had a pumpkin-shaped body and springs for feet enabling him to jump ten to fifteen feet at a time. Ibid 392 Around autumn when boys were raiding apple and plum trees at night there was a rumour spread of a 'Spring-man.' He was supposed to be a man with springs attached to his feet and he leaped several feet into the air. It is also believed that he looked into windows at night.
6 Attrib, comb spring avens: golden ragwort (Senecio aureus) (1956 ROULEAU 38).
spring baiting: quantity of frozen caplin, herring, etc, taken in spring aboard vessel at one time for use as bait in trawl-fishing; a fishing voyage to the Banks, duration of which is fixed by the supply of bait aboard; BAITING.
1960 FUDGE 19 The first week in April the winter trip was over and we returned home to get ready for the spring baiting. Herring was very scarce in Fortune Bay and the only herring was secured by purse seines for bait. 1964 Evening Telegram 25 Mar It is now when south coast activities and thoughts would be centered around the preparation and sailing of the banking fleet on what was the beginning of the voyage and known as the 'spring baitings.' ... The spring or frozen baitings usually were of from three to six weeks duration and extended from the Western Banks to the Grand Banks.
spring fish: fish, esp salmon, migrating inshore in the spring; cp SUMMER FISH.
[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 135 We caught the first spring-fish this evening. 1792 ibid Gloss i, xv ~ A salmon which is in perfect season.
spring fishery: cod-fishery on the Banks using herring or frozen bait; early inshore fishery; cp SUMMER FISHERY.
1916 LENCH 14 We have what is known as the Spring fishery, which commences in the later part of March, or the beginning of April, in which they are away for the space of seven or eight weeks.
spring herring: herring schools which migrate to inshore waters in spring. Also attrib. Cp FALL HERRING.
1842 JUKES i, 225 Towards the middle or end of May the first shoal of herrings, called by the natives the spring herrings, appear. 1873 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 15 The chief business of [Sandy Point] was the spring herring fishery, all the product being salted and packed in barrels and shipped to Halifax. 1960 FUDGE 49 Long Harbour, the home of the spring herring, was frozen to many feet thick, and soon the long month of March came in.
spring hunt: trapping season in the Labrador interior.
1947 TANNER 716 In the middle of February, however, the wilderness again calls its faithful children. Muscles swell, snowshoes are strapped on and the trapper starts out on his so-called spring hunt, which usually lasts till the middle of April.
spring run: large number of seals (and fish) migrating in coastal waters early in the fishing season; cp RUN n.
1909 BROWNE 56 This [seal] fishery is carried on from May to June 10 (spring 'run'). and from 20th November to 10th December (fall 'run').
spring salmon: see spring fish above.
[1772] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 228 Had a spring salmon to-day.
spring snowshoe: small, light snowshoe.
1933 MERRICK 329 Edward had two pairs of snowshoes we used to josh him about, a big pair called his 'winter snowshoes' and a little pair called his 'spring snowshoes.'
spring trip: first of the annual periods of fishing on the offshore banks.
M 70-27 The names of our trips [to the Banks] were as follows: Spring trip, fished mostly on the Grand Banks...
spring var: balsam fir (Abies balsamea); SNOTTY VAR, VAR.
M 68-16 Once the fall fishery is over, the men go 'in the woods and [haul] out their spring var, pile it up, cut paths to it in order to make it easier for hauling out when the snow comes. M 69-14 Some of this [wood] was hauled green' or undried, while in late winter and early spring they would cut what was known as spring var. This was cut during the spring, left lying all summer with the limbs still attached where it dried. The following winter it was limbed and hauled out to provide dry firewood for the winter. C 71-22 [Two men] went in over the hills on Merasheen Island to cut their spring var. 1976 Daily News 24 Feb, p. 3 The one-room where I began teaching in Fortune Bay was heated by a black, pot-bellied stove that glowed when primed with good splits and fed with dry spring var.
spring vessel: English West-Country fishing and trading vessel.
[c1830] 1890 GOSSE 71 The arrival of the spring vessels from Poole [to Carbonear].
spring weakness: malnutrition resulting from the exhaustion of the winter's supply of food (c 75-21).
spring winter: snow-fall in late March (1971 NOSEWORTHY 248); cp PATRICK, SHEILA.
