5 
ably found on the fish-hook of civilized people, yet I can 
well conceive that it is possible, where fish is plentiful, to 
procure a sufficiency even with a hook so clumsy. 
While referring to this fact, it may be not uninteresting 
to notice the wide distance between civilized and uncivilized 
life denoted by the barb of the fish-hook. Probably cen- 
turies of use and observation lay between the first hook 
and the hook which by an advance of thought was furnished 
with a barb. 
Line-fishing is carried on to a greater or less extent all 
round the coasts of the United Kingdom, but the most 
important fishing ground is found in the North Sea, and it 
is from this ocean that by far the larger quantity is brought 
to our markets. 
Not only is Great Britain supplied from the rich harvest 
which these waters yield, but all the countries bordering on 
the North Sea draw their fish supply from the same 
locality, and carry on considerable commerce in the various 
kinds of fish. 
Taking into account the area of the North Sea, and the 
number of people supplied with food from it, as well as the 
great variety of fish found therein, it may be regarded as 
the most important fishing ground in the world. Taking a 
line eastward from the Shetland Isles and continuing south- 
ward to the North Foreland, from shore to shore, whether 
on its shallows or in its depths, on its even grounds or in its 
caverns—which the fishermen call pits, or holes—fish of 
some kind or other is found in greater or less quantity. 
The variety consists of cod, ling, haddock, halibut, coal- 
fish, whiting, skate: these are the principal kinds caught 
on line, while almost every other kind which supplies 
the table of rich or poor is caught in the trawl or in the 
drift-net. 
