112 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
place. Of course fish may be employed, either herring or mackerel, 
fresh or salted, as well as capelin, portions of the cod, the lamprey, 
and, indeed, fish generally; the most appetizing and attractive fish 
bait for this’and other purposes is probably the menhaden or pogee. 
The trawl-line reaches its maximum of application and of size in the 
cod and other white fisheries which are carried on in the North Sea on 
a very large scale. At Great Grimsby, one of the principal centers of 
this kind of fishing, the long-lining is prosecuted by means of smacks 
of about the class and size of those employing the beam-trawl, from 40 
to 60 tons, and even greater tonnage. A crew of nine to eleven hands 
is required to bait and work the lines; and the fish when caught are 
kept alive as long as possible, in wells. A complete set of long-lines, as 
used in all these vessels, consists of about 15 dozen, or 180, lines, each 
of 40 fathoms in length, and carrying 26 hooks on smaller short lines, 
called snoods. These are placed about a fathom and a half apart, soas 
to prevent the snoods from becoming entangled with each other. These - 
180 lines are united into one, forming a single line of 7,200 fathoms, cr 
about 8 miles in length, and carrying 4,680 hooks. Contrary to the 
practice in Norway,where the lines are set in the afternoon and taken up 
the next morning, in England the lines are always put down and taken 
up by daylight; they are “shot” at sunrise or earlier, and taken up be- 
fore night ; sometimes, indeed, two casts can be made in one day. The 
baiting is generally done at night. A small anchor holds the line steady 
at every 40 fathoms, with a buoy at each end, and at each intermediate 
mile, as already explained. * 
According to Mr. Holdsworth the use of wellsin cod-fishing was‘first 
tried at Harwich, in 1712, and soon increased very rapidly, until now 
itis very extensively employed by many nations. Inthe wor k of Holds- 
worth (Deep-Sea Fishing and Fishing Boats) will be found very bore 
statements in regard to the use of the trawlin England. 
As already stated, the whelk is used as bait on the largest long-lines, 
as any other would be too readily washed away by the rapid tide. The 
shorter lines, shot from boats, usually in quieter waters, are served by 
means of the softer muscle, a mollusk, also extremely abundant in the 
United States. The fish are usually taken alive, and after a puncturing 

* Although the British fishermen set longer trawl-lines. in one string than the 
Americans do, they rarely if ever use so many fathoms or such a number of hooks to 
the vessel as the Mone The greater part of the American ‘‘bankers” set more than 
nine miles of traw! in the bearcgdik: having 9,000 hooks attached, while the smallest 
amount would be about two-thirds as much. It should also be borne in mind that 
it is not uncommon for the American fishermen to set and haul this amount of gear 
twice a day. The vessels engaged in the winter haddock fishery on our coast have a 
still greater number of hooks than the cod fishermen. The smallest class of these 
rarely have less than eight miles of trawl, with 12,000 hooks attached, while all of 
the larger vessels have, at least, half as much more, and quite a number have twice 
as many, namely, 24,000 hooks, or about sixteen miles of trawl.—J. W. COLLINS. 
