FOOD FISHES 47 



They have large mouths with strong teeth, and they prey 

 upon dead fish, and on most of the lower animals l which 

 inhabit the sea-floor, as well as upon herrings, which live in the 

 middle waters. Attached to the chin they have little tentacles 

 (barbels) hanging down, with which they feel their way along 

 the floor of the sea, as, with head bent downwards, they move 

 along ready at any moment to pounce upon their unfortunate 

 victims. 



Cod were formerly caught by long lines, but (though lines 

 are still used) they are now principally taken by the trawl. 

 These lines sometimes measure as much as nine miles, and 

 attached to them are numerous smaller ones, each holding 

 a hook and baited with whelks or other fish. These are shot 

 down into the sea across the tide, a float at each end showing 

 the fishermen the position of their lines, and so voracious are 

 the cod that a man has been known to catch as many as five 

 hundred in ten hours. On each boat there is a well, so 

 arranged that the sea-water can flow through it, and the fish 

 when caught are put into this, and brought alive to shore. 



Cod inhabit the northern seas wherever the floor is rocky 

 or stony, and on the English coast north of the Humber, and 

 on the Great Fisher Bank, as well as farther afield off the coast 

 of Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, large quantities are taken. 



Sailing smacks from Grimsby and Harwich work the North 

 Sea grounds, but the more distant ones of Iceland and the 

 Faroe Isles are worked by steamboats 2 from Grimsby, Fleet- 

 wood, Aberdeen, and Hull. 



Important, however, as these fisheries are, they are of small 

 account compared with those of the Lofoten Islands off the 

 coast of Norway, and those of the Grand Banks to the south- 

 east of Newfoundland. 



From the Arctic Ocean, borne down by the Labrador 



1 Such, for instance, as hermit-crabs (which the cod drag out from the 

 whelk shells which they inhabit) and swimming crabs, shrimps, common 

 squids, and sea-mice. 



2 One steam trawler often lands seventy or eighty score from a week's 

 fishing. 



