58 COD 



carried on in the German Ocean, and that in very early times, 

 as appears from the fact that it was so recognised before the 

 year 1368, when the city of Amsterdam procured permission 

 from the King of Sweden to form an establishment for carrying 

 it on in the Isle of Schonen; and in the year 1415, Henry 

 the Fifth of England compelled the King of Denmark to make 

 satisfaction to some of his subjects for injuries received in his 

 dominions for something connected with it. Whatever was the 

 nature of the privilege thus claimed, it was afterwards lost, 

 until Elizabeth recovered it. This fishery was the principal 

 source of the supply of Cods, until the discovery of the much 

 larger numbers to be obtained on the banks of Newfoundland; 

 when the attention of fishermen became directed to that more 

 distant but more promising source of wealth, under the 

 direction and with the assistance of merchants who made it a 

 portion of the traffic which they were accustomed to carry on 

 with the Italian ports of the Mediterranean. On these fertile 

 banks the mode of fishing has varied, but it is only of late 

 that reports have been circulated of a decrease in the numbers 

 of the fishes that are found in that district; as if the long- 

 continued and mighty inroads which have been made on them 

 have at last effected a decided diminution of what may have 

 appeared an inexhaustible supply. But Cods have long been 

 found in large numbers nearer home, as on the Dogger Bank, 

 and in our North-eastern Sea, where, along the borders of 

 Northumberland and Norfolk, the fishery engages the service 

 of a large number of boats and men, of which the port of 

 Barking in particular affords an instance. According to evidence 

 produced before a committee of the House of Commons, there 

 belong to that place about one hundred and twenty fishing 

 vessels, of the burden of forty to sixty tons, with a crew of 

 upwards of eight hundred men; and their employment, in this 

 fishery lasts for about three months in the year, during which 

 they are accustomed to make three voyages on the whole. 



But within a year or two a new discovery has been made 

 of a situation, which for a time, is likely to draw to itself 

 the attention of fishermen of the northern portion of our 

 island and perhaps of Ireland, in a higher degree than any 

 other. This is along the upper portion of a submarine elevation, 

 of which the situation is marked by a solitary rock that bears 

 the name of Kockall, and which probably was belter known 



