48 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
that none of the snoods to which the hooks are attached 
may become fouled. After the hooks have been got into 
the water, the smack heaves to till the tide has about 
ceased, when the work of hauling in the lines begins, the 
vessel making short tacks along the course during the 
process, the fish are taken off the hooks as they come in; 
this is work that has to be very carefully gone about, as 
one living cod is worth a good many dead ones. To keep 
these fish alive is therefore the chief aim and end of cod 
fishing. As soon as a cod is safely secured, its air blad- 
der requires to be punctured in order to admit of its 
keeping its equilibrium when, as is immediately done, it is 
placed in the well of the vessel in the hope of keeping it 
alive till the port is reached, where, along with all the others 
which have been captured, it is transferred to a wooden 
box or cage in the dock. We are speaking at present of 
the cod fishery as prosecuted from Great Grimsby, in one 
of the harbours or docks of which thousands of these fish 
are kept alive to await the orders of the dealers—they can 
be taken out and killed as required. These fish command 
an excellent price, and can of course be sold at times when, 
in consequence of squally weather preventing fishing, there 
might be none to meet the demand. With favourable 
weather and an industrious crew good hauls of codfish are 
obtained, as well as ling, haddock and halibut. A Great 
Grimsby master of a cod smack told the writer that he has 
come into port on two or three turns right off the reel with 
as many as twenty-two score of live codfish in prime 
condition. The skipper alluded to says a very small per- 
centage of fish to the hundred hooks is now taken, 
“the dogs” are so voracious that they kill and damage 
a lot of the cod, whilst other animals seem to have a 
pretty taste for the bait and to be endowed with sufficient 
