58 COD TETHERED IN GRIMBSY DOCK. 



" One of these boxes was liaulecl up alongside a barge, 

 and the lid opened for my inspection. The sight was 

 most interesting and curious ; there appeared one solid 

 mass of living cod, all struggling and gaping with their 

 immense mouths. This is a sight worth going all the 

 way to Grimsby to witness. 



" According to the supply wanted for the market, the 

 cod are taken out of the boxes and * felled ' by a blow 

 on the head with a heavy mallet. This is the best way 

 of killing cod. 



*' In another of these boxes there was a large number 

 of great halibuts. I had never seen a live halibut before. 

 He is a curious looking fellow, one side brown, the other 

 a creamy white. The cod will live in the boxes eight 

 weeks ; they have no food given them. The halibuts 

 will also live from eight to nine weeks. A cod weighing 

 fifty pounds is considered to be a large fish, one was 

 sold last year weighing fifty-two. A seventy-pound cod 

 is the largest ever known. The largest cod are caught 

 off Cromer Knowle. 



''When walking round the dock I saw some men 

 hauling at a rope ; evidently the rope was made fast to 

 something very heav3\ When this body came to the 

 surface, to my astonishment it consisted of a solid mass 

 of live cod, each individual fish being tied by the tail to 

 the rope. When the fish were in the water they spread 

 themselves out in a circle, looking like a large cart- 

 wheel without the tire, only the spokes much more 

 numerous. Wlien the cod were hauled up into the air 

 they looked like a rope of gigantic onions ; the poor 

 cods' tails seemed very sore and lacerated by the string 

 which fastened them to the ro])e. These cod, poor 

 beasts ! must lead a miserable life, and I think this 

 l)ractice of tying them up very cruel. 



