4 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



book ; and the fishermen would doubtless be astonished 

 to find how large a proportion of the diet of many- 

 fishes consists of different kinds of Crustacea. It is 

 rather remarkable that some of the baits in general 

 use, and which are undoubtedly attractive — mussels 

 and whelks for example — are just those particular kinds 

 which can form but a very small or probably no por- 

 tion of the natural food of the fishes which take them. 

 Some fishes have teeth specially fitted for crushing the 

 hard shells of mollusca, but that is not the case gene- 

 rally ; and without the assisting hand of the fisherman 

 few of our edible fishes would have an opportunity of 

 tasting these particular delicacies. When the herrings 

 are on the coast and are accompanied by a host of cod, 

 coalfish, &c., then in many places the fishermen are 

 careful to open these predaceous fishes for the sake of 

 the herrings they have swallowed, and which after- 

 wards may be usefully employed as bait ; but there the 

 examination ends, and at other seasons it matters little 

 apparently in the estimation of most fishermen what the 

 fish have been feeding on so long as some of the mussels 

 or whelks provided for their entertainment meet with 

 acceptance. 



We presume there can hardly be a doubt that, except 

 in the case of very small fish, there is a strong cannibal 

 propensity among the finny tribes — that, in fact, fishes 

 as a rule feed on fishes ; this would seem to point to the 

 advantage of a more general use of fish-bait — living, if 

 possible ; but of course in this there would be a frequent 

 difficulty. The subject does not, however, appear to 

 have received the attention it deserves ; and although 

 pieces of fish are commonly used at certain times and 

 places, they are employed more with the idea of their 

 being agreeable to any fish which may happen to 



