THE HADDOCK AND COAL-FISH, 241 



banger carries a small boat on deck, for working the great 

 lines in moderate weather. This boat is also provided with 

 a well, in which the fish are kept alive till they arrive at the 

 banger, when they are transferred from the small boat's well 

 to that of the larger vessel. 



The Haddock, which has a striking family resemblance to 

 the cod, is taken both by trawl-nets and lines, and being in 

 great esteem by fish-eaters for the excellence of its flavor, 

 we ought to be pleased that the fish is so partial to our own 

 coasts, where it appears in vast shoals at particular seasons. 

 Fishermen sometimes find haddocks and other fishes caught 

 in their lines reduced to mere skin and skeleton by the Hag, 

 one of the species allied to the Lamprey family, resembling 

 an eel or worm, and a perfect anatomist in its way. It is 

 believed to enter by the mouth of the haddock, and thus 

 prey upon it: the fish thus treated is called a ** robbed " fish. 

 As many as six hags have been taken out of a single had- 

 dock, and they are also said to make their way into fishes 

 through the skin, and are hence sometimes called " borers.'* 

 It is supposed, however, that the hags are swallowed by 

 fishes, and, in retaliation, work out their insides. 



The Coal-fisli — a relative of the cod, with a very vulgar 

 name, derived from its black coat, but a fish of really hand- 

 some form, and about two or three feet in length — takes a 

 bait with extraordinary eagerness: when a boat falls in with 

 a shoal, they may be kept beside it by being thus attracted 

 till the whole are captured. It is abundant in all Northern 

 seas, and is taken on the British coasts. In many parts of 

 Scotland they are well known to juvenile anglers, who take 

 them in plenty from the end of piers, often with a rude 

 tackle and almost any kind of bait. In the winter-time, 

 while the fry of this fish is in the harbor of Orkney, it is 

 common to see five or six hundred people, of all ages, fishing 

 for them with small angling-rods about six feet long, and a 



