OSSEOUS FISHES. 



551 



the natives fish for this with an implement which they call gangnaed. 

 It is composed of a hempen cord five or six hundred yards in length, 

 to which are attached some thirty smaller cords, each furnished with 

 a barbed hook at its extremity. The larger cord is attached to floating 

 planks, which act as trimmers, indicating the place of this formidable 

 engine of destruction. 



The Greenlanders usually replace the hempen cords by thongs of 

 whalebone or narrow bands of shark's skin. At the end of twenty 



tig. 374. The Halibut (Hippoglossus vulgaris). 



hours these lines are drawn home, and it is not at all unusual to find 

 five or six large halibut caught on the hooks. PL. XXVIII. represents 

 the native mode of fishing for halibut in the Greenland Seas. 



Another mode of capturing this and other flat-fish is to spear them 

 on their sandy beds. "No rule can be laid down," says Dr. Bertram, 

 " for this method of fishing. It is carried on successfully by means of 

 a common pitchfork, but some gentlemen go the length of fine spears 

 made for the purpose, very long, and with very sharp prongs. Others, 



