Most Easily Caught 277 



continually hauling up heavy fish from depths of from 

 two to four hundred feet. And therefore the long- 

 line system of fishing is welcomed. It consists in 

 having a line, say, a thousand feet in length, with a 

 hook snooded on by a short tail about every three 

 feet. These hooks are all baited, and the line is paid 

 out from a boat which is rowed slowly along until 

 the line is stretched along the bottom, both ends 

 being held in position by a buoy at the top of the 

 water and an anchor or sinker at the bottom. After 

 a certain time has elapsed, which varies according 

 to circumstances, the line is hauled in and the hooked 

 fish, who, apparently finding themselves unable to 

 get away, have just accepted the situation with philo- 

 sophic '6alm and ceased to struggle, are disengaged 

 and dropped into the boat. Then the line is re-baited 

 and set again, while the boat hurries back to the smack 

 to get the catch packed in ice so that it shall not spoil. 

 But in spite of the marvellously prolific character 

 of the Cod, and the great extent of sea around our 

 coasts which is exactly fitted to its needs, there are 

 many and bitter complaints heard among the fisher- 

 men of the grave falling off in supply, and a general 

 idea that legislation is needed to conserve the fish 

 or it will be exterminated. Now it ought to be, I 

 think, perfectly clear that, in the case of such fish as 

 Cod, herring, or mackerel, the utmost efforts of which 

 man is capable can have no appreciable effect in re- 

 ducing the numbers of the fish available for catching. 

 Especially when it is remembered what incalculable 

 myriads of these fish are eaten by their natural enemies 

 in the sea, numbers to which man's paltry toll are 

 but as it were the stragglers from the main army. 

 That the scarcity of Cod around our coast is not, 

 cannot be, due to over-fishing seems so certain as to 



