y 
I am informed on reliable authority that as many as a 
thousand ling have been taken in one day; reckoning a 
ling at an average of 24 lbs. this represents nearly 10} 
tons of ling, besides cod and other kinds of fish, of 
which they catch a fair proportion. These quantities are 
perhaps not equalled by any fishermen in the North Sea, 
and can only be approached in their quantity by the 
Norwegian fishermen at the great periodical fisheries of 
Lofoden, Finmarken, and Romsdal. 
The bait used by the Swedish fishermen is in the first 
instance the mussel. With these they bait their haddock 
line, which they work on banks adjacent to their great 
fishing grounds, where the haddock is found in large 
quantities ; after a day’s catch of haddock they sail away 
into deeper waters, and then in its turn the shiny haddock 
is cut up to make bait for the ling and cod, so carrying out 
the great law of the survival of the fittest. 
A specialty of the Swedish fishing lines is the float 
used on the snocd. This is made of cedar bark cut to 
shape, about three inches long by one inch in diameter, 
and boiled in beeswax in order to render it impervious 
to water; it is so attached with respect to the hook as to 
keep the latter about two feet from the ground. Like the 
swinging signboard of a country inn, it makes a display 
which the hungry traveller cannot well resist, and as a 
consequence it is readily snapped at. It also serves the 
purpose of keeping the bait off the dirty ground and 
above the reach of the star-fish and creeping insects 
which infest large portions of the bottom of the sea. 
The position held by Norwegian fisheries is by far the 
most important both as regards the number of persons 
employed and the quantities landed. But inasmuch as 
their great fisheries are localised and carried on within 
B 3 
