Roundpsh 



the lateral line was the organ that would have to be used. A very 

 sensitive lateral line would therefore allow each individual to judge 

 accurately the distance that lay between it and those that surroun- 

 ded it, and would thus be helpful in maintaining contact and in 

 preserving the integrity of the shoal. But the mackerel, certainly, 

 and the herring, more conjecturally, used their eyes for this job 

 and Jan's theory would have been a highly controversial one if he 

 had ever dared to advance it. 



Neither saithe nor lythe were particularly welcome in the fish 

 hold. They were better appreciated on the table in the fo'c'sle 

 than on the concrete in the market, and even the trawlermen pre- 

 ferred them to be disguised as fish cakes and seldom took them 

 neat. 



HAKE 

 Apart, indeed, from one extraordinary species, the only gad- 

 oids that were sure of a good market were the old faithfuls, cod, 

 haddock and whiting. But that one species was a very important 

 one. Jan never sailed in a ship that went in search of it since he 

 was concerned chiefly with the more northern waters. It did, 

 however, occasionally visit his nets. Once, it sent him to hospital. 

 His whole hand had become infected after one of his fingers had 

 been deeply scratched by the sharp spine bones of a hake. Later, 

 he had seen the jealousy in the market on the day when an Aber- 

 deen trawler landed three thousand boxes of the same fish. By far 

 the biggest shot he ever saw landed, it had all been caught within 

 three days by a boat that had gone over near Norway with the 

 idea of fishing for haddock. The accident was typical of the ways 

 of the hake. It might turn up anywhere in the North Sea and it 



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