, OSSEOUS FISHES. 559 



feet apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the Cornish 

 coast " snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to each end of the 

 long line, to keep them from entanglement with each other. The 

 hooks are haited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the lines are 

 shot across the tide about the time of slack water, in from forty to 

 fifty fathoms, and are hauled in for examination after six hours. 



An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing by 

 Mr. Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches above 

 the hook, which suspends the bait, and exhibits it more clearly to the 

 fish by the motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not engaged in 

 hauling, shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, 

 holding one in each hand, each armed with two hooks, kept apart by 

 a strong piece of wire. A heavy weight attached to the lower end of 

 each line keeps it steady near the ground, where the fish principally 

 feed. Enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, and coal-fish, 

 with pollack, hake, ling, and torsk, are taken in this way all round 

 our coast. Of cod-fish alone four hundred to five hundred and fifty 

 have been taken in ten hours by one man, and eight men have taken 

 eighty score of cod in one day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five and 

 twenty fathoms water. Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even 

 the Essex, coasts, have yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught 

 as described, and are stowed in well-boats, in which they are carried 

 to Gravesend, whence they are transhipped into market-boats, 

 and sent up to Billingsgate by each evening tide ; the store-boats 

 not being allowed to come up higher, as the fresh water would kill 

 the fish. 



The Haddock (Morrhua seglefinus) is common in our markets ; it 

 is much smaller than the cod, but in other respects not unlike it. It 

 frequents the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited 

 usually with mussels ; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only 

 got with herring bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large 

 numbers of haddocks are dried and smoked with the fumes of hard 

 wood and sawdust. Hence the term " Finnan baddies," an article in 

 such request at a Scottish breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords 

 a very small portion of the haddocks sold as such, but the true " Fin- 

 nans " are supposed to have the finest flavour. 



The Whiting, Merlangus vulgaris (Fig. 376), by some amateurs 

 considered the most delicate of all the Gadidse, is plentiful all round 



