LINE-FISHING. 145 



admitted damage of occasionally carrying away a few 

 hooks, is strong evidence in favour of the statement 

 that if the trawler keep clear of the buoys used with 

 the longline, the trawl can pass over the intermediate 

 spaces without doing more than the most insignificant 

 injury. That it is not always possible for the trawlers 

 to avoid the line will be evident when it is remembered 

 that the lines are set across the tide for a distance of 

 many miles, with only a buoy at every mile to mark 

 them ; and that the course of the trawler, there work- 

 ing down with the tide, must take her over them ; for 

 although it may be easy enough for the liners to see 

 the nearest buoys, knowing the direction in which they 

 should be, the trawler is not likely to observe them 

 until they are so close that she has only time to alter 

 her course sufficiently to give them a tolerably wide 

 berth, and to take the trawl over the lines where the 

 least damage is likely to be done. The great outcry 

 against the trawlers a few years ago for carrying away 

 longlines, as was alleged, was raised by fishermen on 

 the north-east coast, who did not like to see fishing 

 boats from ports farther south catching fish which they 

 considered belonged to themselves ; although in many 

 cases the local fishermen did not adopt the most effective 

 means of catching them. In March or April longlining 

 is put a stop to, and but few line-cod are caught in 

 the North Sea for the next three months, except some- 

 times on the Dutch coast. Many of the cod-smacks go 

 away to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, where a some- 

 what fluctuating fishery for cod has been carried on for 

 many years. Handlines are there used, and the fish are 

 always salted. 



In July handline fishing for cod commences in the 

 home waters, and is continued till near the end of 



