4 
intervals of about ten feet. Such a line may extend for a 
distance of several miles, and have upon it 5,c00 or 6,000 
hooks. It is secured on the ground by an anchor at each 
end and at intervals of about every half a mile. From the 
point of each of these anchors a buoy-line rises to the 
surface of the sea, where it is attached to a buoy. The 
buoy carries a flag from a staff about ten feet in height, and 
may be seen for a distance of two or three miles. 
Hand-lining is the term used for a single line with a lead 
attached in order to sink it to the bottom, and from this 
lead two short lines, with a hook on each, are suspended. 
Such a line is worked bya man or boy from the vessel’s 
deck, and as many as ten or twelve may be worked at the 
same time on each of the larger vessels, which are known 
as codmen. 
Fishing by means of lines and hooks has been carried 
on for many centuries; mention is made of it in the 
Book of Isaiah, etc., but the subject of its antiquity has 
been treated at length in the elaborate paper read by 
the learned Professor at the inauguration of this series of 
Conferences, and it remains for me to deal with its prac- 
tice in our own day. 
So far as explorers have penetrated into regions far 
removed from the limits of civilization, wherever these are 
bordered by the ocean, they have found implements cor- 
responding to our hooks and lines, and have furnished 
accounts which show that a considerable portion of the 
food supply of the untaught savage is obtained by the 
hook and line. Very interesting specimens of the crude 
fishing gear of the Esquimaux are exhibited in the United 
States section of this Exhibition ; the hook is formed of two 
pieces of bone and the line is made of strips of sealskin, and 
although the hook is not furnished with the barb invari- 
