AND LINE-FISHING 



find room for another mussel. Nevertheless, the work has 

 its compensations : there will certainly not be a telegram 

 when the crew get ashore to say that their cargo is not 

 wanted ; mussels are always wanted ; if not by the ordin- 

 ary consumer, by the breeder. 



If the fishing has been done from a smack, there are 

 barges waiting for her cargo to be shovelled into ; if a 

 barge has been used, she will either let herself be landed 

 high and dry, when she will unload into carts, or else she 

 will carry her fish straight away up north or wherever 

 they are wanted. A stranger looking at one of these flat- 

 bottomed, ungainly craft close at hand, as she lies on the 

 Thames mud, would be as surprised when he saw the same 

 barge out at sea as he would if told the number of miles 

 she travels in the course of a twelvemonth. Looked at 

 from a distance when she is out at sea she seems as grace- 

 ful a ship as sails, in spite of her funny little mizzen. 

 When you see her empty and realise her storage accommo- 

 dation, you do not wonder that she is used in mussel- 

 dredging, considering the enormous numbers that must be 

 caught before the profits can be appreciable ; for, as bait 

 or manure, the catch will fetch less than a penny a 

 hundred. 



Mention of mussel-bait brings us to the consideration 

 of how, and by whom, it is used to such an extraordinary 

 extent. 



Line-fishing is probably of far more ancient date than 

 netting ; for that matter, there are savages that have used 

 that method for centuries, and still have not dreamt of 

 catching their fish in quantities, by means of nets. As a 



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