288 Cod 



half-a-crown a day, which you can pay me out of your 

 earnings.' 



I thanked him, and started ; fortunately I had 

 lines and hooks ; I was seldom without them during 

 my seafaring days. In an hour I was well down 

 the bay and had joined a little flotilla of boats, whose 

 occupants were all busy hauling in Cod. In five 

 minutes I was as busy as they, but sorely handicapped 

 by the leakiness of my craft, which necessitated me 

 baling with one hand and fishing with the other. 

 Nevertheless, fish were so plentiful, and I was so 

 fortunate, that by sunset — I had gone out at i p.m. — 

 I had caught a gross of fish, whose average weight 

 was four pounds. I took them to the smokehouse 

 and received eighteen shillings for them, at which I 

 was mightily pleased. 



Altogether that week my fishing brought me in 

 four pounds, and I felt as if I were on the high road 

 to fortune, when the Cod, who had only, I suppose, 

 been on a visit, departed again, and my occupation 

 was gone, for within the bay, where alone my boat 

 was of service, I could not find a single Cod. On the 

 last day I caught but a single fish, and that was a 

 huge lean Ling. 



This curious relative of the Cod seems to be a com- 

 promise between a Cod and a conger eel, and there are 

 not wanting those fishermen who believe that it really 

 is a hybrid. Its head and shoulders are exactly like 

 a Cod, colour, barbels on the lower lip (a kind of feelers) 

 and all. But the body tapers away just like an eel's 

 with a dorsal fin that runs almost round where the tail 

 fin should be, and continues along the belly as a long 

 ventral. The one I caught was nearly six feet in 

 length, but so attenuated that he did not weigh more 

 than twenty pounds. I found on this occasion, that 



