CH. V] THE SEA-FISHERIES 109 



eels, pogges, suckers, sticklebacks, gobies and many others are 

 taken as a rule. The invertebrates of the shrimp and prawn 

 trawls are always very abundant, and are often varied in their 

 nature. Crabs and starfishes are nearly always abundant when the 

 shrimp trawl is used, and these creatures are of course represented 

 also in the catches of the prawn boats. Since the latter work on 

 rougher gi^ound than the shrimp boats, w^eeds and zoophytes are 

 also taken, with the usual invertebrate fauna which is associated 

 with these organisms. Greater novelty is thus exhibited by the 

 prawn, than by the shrimp trawls. 



Next in importance to trawling comes lining. The employment 

 of lines is probably an older form of fishing than trawling or 

 seineing, and even now^ when the liners are very gradually being 

 superseded by the trawlers the former are still of considerable 

 importance so far as the supply of fish is concerned. But the 

 older line boats were vessels of very unpretentious build and 

 equipment, whereas the newer line boats are vessels of much the 

 same kind as the modern steam trawlers. The long-line used by 

 the newer lining steamers is a fishing instrument of some magni- 

 tude. Each line carries a number of short pieces of rope to which 

 the hooks are attached. These are the "snoods," and they are 

 fastened to the line at intervals of about six feet. The baits 

 employed vary according to the nature of the fishing and the 

 convenience with which the bait animals are obtained. Shelled 

 mussels, herrings, whelks, squids and other animals are the more 

 common baits. They are put on the hooks ashore and the baited 

 lines are then coiled up neatly in tubs, the separate layers 

 being kept apart by bent-grass or some other substance. As line 

 after line is shot overboard the ends are fastened together until as 

 much as six or seven thousand yards of rope are on the sea bottom. 

 The whole is weighted and buoyed at intervals. Usually it is shot one 

 day and fished the next one. Often the bait is taken by some small 

 fish and then the latter is taken when on the hook by some larger 

 piscivorous fish. Often the line cannot be fished for several days 

 on account of bad weather, and then hosts of squids or dogfishes may 

 attack the fishes on the hooks and spoil them. Quite a different 

 assortment of fish are taken by the long- lines. In the North Sea 

 cod, ling, haddock, skates and rays are, in the order named, the 



