LINE-FISHING. 153 



sailing, are of small size, ranging from five or six tons 

 downwards, and undecked, or at most with a covered 

 forecastle. In the Channel jDorts small sailing '" hookers" 

 are very numerous, and great numbers of whiting, 

 bream, and various other fish are caught by them, 

 especially during the summer months. They are com- 

 monly either smack or dandy rigged ; the latter being 

 a very convenient fashion for fishing craft of all sizes, 

 and, as before mentioned, a modification of it now 

 becoming generally adopted for the large class of trawl 

 and line vessels. In the herring and mackerel seasons 

 the small sailing hookers are in some places used for 

 working the drift-nets ; but hooking is the principal 

 purpose for which they are employed and generally are 

 best adapted. 



On parts of the coast of Scotland larger boats are 

 used for line-fishing, and many of them are decked. 

 The same boats are also used for drift-fishing, and they 

 will be further noticed when the Scottish fisheries are 

 spoken of. 



One other method of line-fishing — that by the 

 "dandy-line" or "jigger" — deserves to be noticed, 

 although it appears to be in use at only a few places, 

 among which we may mention Wick, the fishing sta- 

 tions at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, and Tarbert 

 on the west coast ; and for a very short period in each 

 year. The line has a leaden sinker or plummet (B) 

 about four pounds weight at one end, and above it, at 

 intervals of eight inches, the line is fastened by an 

 ordinary clove-hitch (C) to the centre of pieces of whale- 

 boue or stout wire nine inches long, having a very 

 short line at each end supporting a bright tinned hook. 

 Eight or ten of these spreaders are thus fastened at 

 right angles to the line '(A), and the whole apparatus is 



