LINE-FISHING. 149 



owners, having a due regard for their own interests, 

 will then withdraw many of their vessels from the 

 fishery ; less ground will be worked over, fewer tempt- 

 ing baits will be held out to the unwary, and many fish 

 which might otherwise have been caught will have an 

 opportunity of spawning and helping to restock the 

 haunts of their ancestors. But when it is remembered 

 that cod are only caught by hook and line — for the 

 very few taken by the trawl are hardly worth con- 

 sideration — and that their capture depends entirely on 

 their being tempted by the baits, it is difficult to believe 

 in the possibility of their numbers being so far reduced 

 in the open sea as to cause any diminution which would 

 not be made up yearly by a very small proportion of 

 the spawn that would be produced by the survivors. It 

 is not a question of spawning beds being destroyed, or of 

 the fish being unable to get access to them, for it has 

 been ascertained that the ova float and are developed 

 at the surface of the water ; but it is whether the cod 

 can be so tempted to their destruction as to materially 

 diminish their numbers for any time. This appears 

 most improbable. 



When the smacks arrive with their cargoes of live 

 and dead fish at Grrimsby the cod are taken out of the 

 wells by means of long- 

 handled landing nets, and 

 are placed in wooden boxes 

 or chests, which are kept 

 floating in the dock ; and 



there the fish are stored till grimsby Cod-chest. 



they are wanted for the 



market. Each chest is 7 feet long, 4Teet wide, and 

 2 feet deep ; the bottom is made of stout battens a 

 short distance apart to allow free admission to the 



