FISHING "DOWN OUTSIDE" 173 



because he is such a dapper fish. He is so silvery 

 and neat that the black stripe down his side seems 

 to give him the effect of being clad in the very 

 latest thing in summer trousers. The Banks 

 fishermen who sail from Gloucester and are prob- 

 ably more intimately acquainted with the per- 

 sonal affairs of fishes than anyone else, say that 

 the haddock, though now reformed, has not al- 

 ways been v^hat he should be. The haddock, 

 they say, was once such a young sport and con- 

 ducted himself in such unseemly fashion that he 

 was in danger of hell fire. In fact, the devil, 

 searching the Grand Banks for whom he might 

 devour, took the shameless youngster between his 

 finger and thumb and held him aloft in glee, say- 

 ing, ''You for the gridiron.'' But the agile had- 

 dock, skilled in getting out of scrapes, squirmed 

 loose and fled in the depths of the sea. In proof 

 of this adventure if you examine a haddock's 

 body just behind the gills you will see the marks 

 where the Old Boy's fingers scorched him, the 

 scars remaining to this day. I am not sure 

 whether this fable teaches us to be good or to be 

 agile. 



With the cod, as often most intimately with 

 him in the boneless codfish box, come the hake 



