A DATS GROUND-FISHING. 103 



effects of the teeth of his Congership, and I had fitted three or 

 four hooks with a very strong gimp in the following manner, as 

 is the custom also for Hake-fishing at Plymouth and elsewhere. 

 I cut off a piece of line sixteen inches in length, and a trifle 

 less stout than the fishing-line with which it is to be used, and, 

 splicing an eye at one end, unlay an inch and a half of the 

 other and make a knot on the end, leaving the unlaid part 

 about an inch long below the knot, passing through the knot 

 the end of a coil of brass wire, by aid of which I convert my 

 piece of line into a coarse hook-link of gimp, as will be seen 

 presently. Bringing the knot about three-quarters of an inch 

 below the flattened top of the hook on the inside, I bind the 

 hook, the piece of line, and the wire firmly together with well- 

 waxed thread, and fasten off with the invisible knot in common 

 use ; and as it is necessary, for the successful conversion of the 

 piece of line into gimp, that it should be as rigid as possible, I 

 hitch the hook over a nail, the handle of a door, or other point 

 of attachment convanient, and get the piece of line on the 

 stretch by making it fast to some other firm object at the same 

 height it being essential that it should be in the horizontal 

 position, that the wire may be wound regularly round it. The 

 line and hook being conveniently placed as here described, they 

 are to be bound as tightly together as possible with the wire, as 

 far as the flattened top of the hook, when the wire is to be 

 wound round the piece of line alone until the line is covered to 

 about ten inches above the top of the hook, when the wire may 

 be fastened off by interlacing it three or four times between the 

 strands of the piece of line. The hook is now, to all intents 

 and purposes, snooded or ganged with a piece of very stout 

 gimp, and it must be an extraordinary Conger indeed to make 

 any impression on it. Hooks fitted in this manner are procur- 

 able from Mr. Hearder, of Union Street, Plymouth ; and a 

 dozen or two would be found very useful to all who may occa- 

 sionally fish for Conger &c., as well as to others who visit or 

 reside on the distant shores of our colonial possessions, where 

 fish of such a size are met with that no ordinary gear will hold 

 them, as testified by a correspondent from the Cape Colony, who 

 mentions the capture of fish of 120 Ibs. weight, with the escape 



