COD, HADDOCKS, WHITING, BREAM, ETC 445 



lowering a huge hook fitted with a chain and swivel and baited 

 with a piece of salt pork is common knowledge. Sailors say 

 that when a vessel is going at any considerable speed it is 

 next to impossible to catch a shark from it. Possibly these 

 cunning creatures know it is not a natural thing for a piece 

 of pork or other bait to be dashing along through the water. 

 They will follow it for some distance, but will not take it until it 

 is eased off to them, when it has the appearance of something 

 which has fallen from the vessel and is being left far astern. 

 Very often sharks are accompanied by two little pilot fish, 

 which appear to be a kind of an advance guard. 



Surgeon-General Paske, in an interesting book relating to 

 sea fish, called 'The Sea and the Rod,' written by himself 

 and Mr. F. G. Aflalo, describes how he once succeeded in 

 catching one of these pilot fish in a bucket let down over the 

 side of the vessel. A peculiarity of sharks and dogfish which 

 I have not mentioned is that they have eyelids, and, on being 

 brought into a boat, open and shut their eyes in most human 

 fashion. 



Sharks and dogfish, though held in detestation by British 

 fishermen, and with good reason, still have their uses. A 

 valuable oil is extracted from their livers and gelatine from 

 their fins, while the skins of some species make excellent sand- 

 paper. In the market of Canton the prices of shark fins, 

 which the Chinese regard as a great delicacy, are regularly 

 quoted ; and extensive shark fisheries are carried on in various 

 parts of the world for the purpose of supplying China. In 

 Sydney shark fins have fetched as much as 28/. per ton. 



Off Iceland a fleet of about a hundred boats is employed in 

 capturing sharks for the sake of their livers only. The bodies, 

 after the livers are extracted, are thrown away. The hooks 

 used by the Icelandic fishermen vary from twelve to eighteen 

 inches in length, the baits being seal blubber and horseflesh. 



