144 NEW SOUTH WALES 



Fishing-vessels of that description could with safety go out to sea in 

 any weather and take supplies and all sorts of fishing-gear for a week's 

 consumption ; the crew should be experienced fishermen, and if possible 

 be themselves the proprietors. The cost of the vessel with a complete 

 outfit of everything required would probably be little short of £4,000. 

 The expenditure weekly, including £2 a week for the wages of each of 

 the crew and interest at 10 per cent, on the capital invested, 

 would be (say) wages £24, interest £8, add £10 for losses and wear 

 and tear — £42 jjer week. This is taking the expenses at an extreme 

 figure ; a moderate calculation of the week's receipts would show a much 

 larger return. In the course of the week it is pretty certain that twelve 

 fishermen with good ajipliances will catch at least 4 tons of fish, and 

 taking these at the low estimate of £20 per ton — less than half the 

 price of salted and dried ling — the weekly profit would be nearly 100 

 per cent, on the outlay. Besides, we may fairly calculate that the best 

 of the fish will, as they are caught, be at once cleaned and placed in the ice- 

 house, and these of course will realize a much higher price than above 

 estimated. With vessels too, so commodious as these, everything may 

 be utilized and nothing should be lost ; the inferior fish, or those not 

 worthy of being put in ice, should be salted on the spot, the air-bladders 

 should be washed and dried at once, particularly those of the jew-fish, 

 teraglin, and silver eel, and even the sharks may be made a source of 

 profit by the saving of the fins and the oil from the liver. The prime 

 fish, such as black rock-cod, schnapper, nannygey, gurnard, Sei'geant 

 Baker, &c., brought in the ice-chests of these vessels would of course re- 

 quire to be received into a cool room the moment of their arrival ; but 

 the advantages attending the use of ice are becoming so fully recognized 

 now, and the ice itself is to be got at such a moderate price, that there 

 is little doubt that every fishmonger will be amply supplied with all that 

 is necessary to keep the fish fresh. It should be understood that it is 

 exceedingly injurious that fish should be ever frozen, but kept at a 

 temperature of 32° F. they undergo no change, and retain all the excel- 

 lence of the most freshly caught fish. 



Some improvements on the present mode of line-fishing might also be 

 attempted. On the Newfoundland banks, and in the North Sea fisheries 

 of Norway, the " bultow" is much used for the capture of the cod and 

 other fish. The following description of the "bultow," as used by the 

 French fishermen at Newfoundland, is taken from " Simmonds' Com- 

 mercial Products of the Sea," page 27: — "The bultow is a long line, 

 with hooks fastened along its whole length, at regular distances, by 

 shorter and smaller cords, called 'snoods,' which are 6 feet long, and are 

 placed on the long line 12 feet apart, to prevent the hooks becoming en- 

 tangled. Near the hooks these shorter lines, or snoods, are formed of 

 separate threads, loosely fastened together, to guard against the teeth of 

 the fish. Buoys, buoy-ropes, and anchors or grapnels are fixed to each 

 end of the line, and the lines are always laid, or, as it is termed ' shot,' 

 across the tide, for if the tide runs upon the end of the line the hooks 

 will become entangled, and the fishing will be wholly lost — for the 

 deep sea fisheries the bultow is of great length. The French fishing- 

 vessels, after anchoring on the bank, in about 45 fathoms of water, run 

 out about 100 fathoms of cable, and prepare to catch cod with two lines, 

 each 3,000 fathoms in length. The snoods are arranged as previously 



