416 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
straight up and down in hauling, a number of round-fish usually 
float up to the surface through the mouth of the net or the large 
meshes of the square, and, engaging the attention of the gulls, 
perish without ever coming on deck. Moreover I believe that: 
pressure or injury in the trawl may induce what I suppose is a para- 
lysis of the muscles of the bladder, so that the same effect is not 
invariably due to mere alteration of bathymetrical position, but the 
result, which would be the same in either case, is more important 
to us at present. The fish, if its injuries be confined to the 
expansion of the bladder, is certainly not beyond remedy, but the 
remedy must be rapidly administered. Liners, who commonly work 
in deep water, succeed in bringing many of their fish home alive in 
the well, and these may live in floating boxes for months afterwards. 
The method adopted is to release the expanded gases by pricking 
the fish with a needle, and letting the air escape, great care being 
taken not to puncture the liver in the process. I will leave my 
readers to conjecture what chance there is of trawl fishermen 
adopting this practice with regard to unsaleable round-fish. In 
any case the fish would have to be returned to the water very 
shortly, and probably most of them would be dead ere the surgical 
assistance arrived. 
I have made no attempt to estimate the proportion of sexually 
mature and immature cod landed by trawlers. It would be 
extremely difficult to do so, since the larger immature fish are much 
mixed up with mature ones. I paid very little attention to the 
species at all until the winter of 1892, when my attention was 
attracted to the considerable and, as I was told, unprecedented 
quantities of codling which were being landed by trawlers from 
certain grounds. 
Local custom divides the individuals of this species into four sizes. 
Up to about 20 inches they are “ codling,” thereafter they rank as 
‘“‘sprags,” until at about 380 inches the dignity of “ half-cod”’ is 
attained. Larger fish are simply “cod.”? A sprag is therefore on 
the borderland of sexual maturity, a condition of which all codling 
fall short. 
The catches of codling to which I have referred first became 
noticeable in November, 1892, and were all derived at first from 
about a ground known as the Yorkshire Hole or Sole Pit. The fish 
seem to have continued there until February, and were chiefly 
pursued by several steam-trawlers. The largest ‘‘ voyage ”’ landed 
comprised 122 boxes for about a week’s fishing. Towards the end 
of February a good number began to appear from off Flamborough 
Head, 40 boxes being obtained thence by one vessel, but they did 
not remain there very long. 
