80 BRITISH IND US TRIES. 



during the winter the time when cod are best fit for 

 the table. Eather rough ground is usually selected, 

 and the smacks work on the Dogger from November to 

 March or April, and on Cromer Knoll, a long-famous 

 bank on the Norfolk coast, from November to Fe- 

 bruary. The Dogger has been celebrated as a cod- 

 fishing bank for a great number of .years, and still 

 retains its character as very productive ground. 



In March or April long-lining is put a stop to, and 

 very few line- cod are caught in the North Sea for the 

 next three months. Many of the smacks then go away 

 to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and work with hand- 

 lines for the cod which are found in more or less 

 abundance in those localities. The fish caught there 

 are always salted. 



In July the smacks return, and commence hand-line 

 fishing in the home waters, at distances generally 

 ranging from ten to thirty miles from the coast. The 

 herrings are about this time approaching the land, and 

 are always attended by large numbers of cod and other 

 voracious species of fish, which, following their prey, 

 do not then keep so near the bottom as is their usual 

 habit. Hand-lining, consequently, becomes then a 

 more effective mode of fishing than long-lining. The 

 hand-line in use for this fishery is about forty-five 

 fathoms long, having at the end a leaden sinker of 

 from five and a half to seven pounds weight, with a 

 stout iron wire, called the "sprawl-wire," fixed in it 

 near the top at right angles to the upright body of the 

 sinker, and slightly curved downwards at the ends. 

 To each of these is fastened a snood of smaller line, 



