60 NATURAL HISTORY. 



about by the rolling of the ship they are at once taken out from the well and packed in ice. Fre- 

 quently a smack comes in from the Dogger Bank with twenty or more score of live Cod, and with 

 more than half as many packed in ice. A smack with a well of this kind costs about 300 more 

 than an ordinary vessel, so that a boat of sixty-eight tons costs 1, 500. More than half the hands 

 on board a Cod smack are apprentices. The captain is paid nine per cent, on the proceeds of the 

 voyage, the mate gets 1 2s. a week, and the men 1 a week each. The apprentices are paid 

 from 4 to 10 a year. The food for the crew is found by the owner. The Whelks used for 

 bait are largely caught in the Boston and Lynn deeps, and on the Kentish coast. The long line is 

 used to catch them, but instead of baiting the hooks, about twenty shore crabs are threaded on each 

 snood, and when the lines are hauled up they are found to be covered with Whelks. The Whelks are 

 also captured by putting refuse fish in shallow nets, which are sunk to the bottom. Each smack takes 

 with her for the voyage about forty wash of Whelks, the wash being a regular measure which holds 

 twenty-one quarts and a pint of water. The Whelks are preserved alive in bags in the well till they 

 are wanted. The shells are then broken and the animals taken out for use. The long-line fishing season 

 is carried on on the Dogger Bank from November to March or April, and on the Cromer Knoll from 

 November to February. A few Cod are caught a little later on the Dutch coast, but many of the 

 smacks then go to Iceland and the Faroe Isles, where the long-line is no longer used, and the fish 

 obtained are salted. 



From July to about the end of October Cocl are fished for with a hand-line, at a distance of 

 about ten to thirty miles from the coast, for the Cod are then following the Herrings. The only 

 difference in the fishing is in the character of the line used. The hand-line has a sinker of lead at the 

 end. weighing six or seven pounds. Thi'ough the upper part of this a stout iron wire passes, curving 

 downward at the ends. To each end of the wire a smaller line or snood six feet long is fastened. 

 The hooks are twice as large as those used with the long-line, and are fixed so that the fish cannot bite 

 them off. There are from two to six hooks on each line. The total length of the hand-line is about 

 forty-five fathoms. Each hand in the smack works one line, arid its depth from the surface depends upon 

 the position of the fish in the sea. The fish bite best towards sunset. About half of those caught are 

 only half grown, but there is no reason to suppose that this destruction of young fish affects the supply 

 for the market. When the ships arrive in port the Cod are taken from the well with landing nets and 

 put into wooden chests, which at Grimsby and Harwich are kept floating in the water. Each chest is 

 seven feet long, four feet wide, and two feet deep. The planks of which it is made are a little way 

 apart at the sides and bottom to allow the water to pass freely through. A chest will hold forty large 

 Cod, or a hundred small ones, and the fish remain alive in these boxes without deteriorating for 

 about a fortnight. They are sent by rail to London and other markets according to the demand. 

 But before this is done the chests ai*e hauled out of the water and opened, one man grasping a fish by 

 the head and tail, lifts it on to the deck, another acting as executioner, holds it firmly behind the head, 

 and hitting it on the nose with a short bludgeon kills it at once. This is found to improve the 

 flavour, and is thought to be more humane than to allow the fishes to die from suffocation, as they 

 would do if sent off alive. 



THE HADDOCK (Gadiis aglcfinm}. 



The Haddock is a migratory fish, ranging round the British coasts, the German Ocean, and the 

 American shores of the North Atlantic. In this species the barbel is very short, and the upper jaw 

 protrudes in front of the lower jaw. The head is relatively smaller than in the Cod. The lateral line 

 is black ; below the lateral line and between the pectoral fin and first dorsal there is a blackish blotch. 

 Dr. Giinther remarks that the skeleton may be readily distinguished from that of the Common Cod 

 by the transvei'se processes of the abdominal vertebrae being much longer than the neural spines. 

 Haddocks swim in vast shoals, and often change their feeding- ground. Their habits are very similar to 

 those of the Cod, and the species is usually taken with the hand-line, or long line, baited with Herring. 

 The stomach most frequently contains univalve and bivalve shells. Edward Forbes pronounced 

 the Haddock a " great conchologist," and Mr. Couch mentions that in a single stomach he was able to 

 distinguish no less than twelve species of univalves and bivalves. The most frequent size of the 

 Haddock is from two to four pounds ; less frequently they attain a weight of eight or ten pounds, and 

 occasionally a length of two feet, but on the Irish coast specimens have been recorded by Mr. 



