LINE-FISHING. 137 



a short description of each, as practised on a large 

 scale, will probably be sufficient for their explanation, as 

 the general subject must be more or less familiar to all 

 who have visited or resided on the coast. 



The longline, spilliard, spiller, bulter, or trot, all of 

 them names given to the same kind of line, according 

 to locality, size, or the purpose for which it is used, 

 is a very general means of fishing, as many kinds' of 

 valuable fish are caught with it, and any length of line 

 may be worked. It is extensively used in the North 

 Sea for the capture of cod, ling, holibut, and haddocks ; 

 and some of these fish when taken by hook and line 

 have often a better appearance and command higher 

 prices in the market than when caught by the trawl. 



G-reat Grimsby has taken an important position with 

 respect to this kind of fishing, and no better idea of it 

 can be obtained than by examining the method by 

 which it is carried on from that port. 



Longlining is there worked by means of smacks, 

 mostly of the size of the larger class of trawl-vessels 

 previously described. They carry from nine to eleven 

 hands each, and remain at sea until they have a fair 

 cargo of fish, which are kept alive as long as possible in 

 a well built in the vessel ; the construction of this well 

 will be explained after we have spoken of the lines and 

 the manner of working them. 



A complete set of longlines, as used in one of these 

 vessels, consists of about fifteen dozen, or 180 lines 

 40 fathoms in length, each supporting twenty -six 

 hooks on smaller short lines called " snoods," which are 

 fastened to the main line at a fathom and a half apart, 

 that distance being sufficient to prevent the snoods 

 fouling one another and the hooks becoming entangled. 

 A " string" of this description, made up of the 180 



