106 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



trawler for a voyage of eleven days he gave as follows : 

 seventy kid of haddocks (2 cwt. in each kid) ; five 

 score of turbot ; forty boxes of plaice ; two boxes of 

 soles ; twelve score of cod ; and four very large 

 sturgeons. " I have known another vessel bring in as 

 much as one hundred and ten kid of haddock," the 

 skipper added ; "but she was gone a few days longer. 

 We pack fish and ice together. We never use the 

 same ice twice, and ice is often very expensive. It 

 costs from 3 to 6 every voyage." Buckland was 

 greatly interested in the Grimsby cod-chests, which 

 were sometimes so thick that the water in the dock 

 could be scarcely seen, and often enough men and boys 

 would walk about on the tops of them and jump from 

 one to the other. A box was hauled up for inspection, 

 and, on the lid being opened, Buckland found a " solid 

 mass of living cod, all struggling and gaping with their 

 immense mouths. ... In another of these boxes there 

 was a large number of great halibuts. I had never seen 

 a live halibut before. He is a curious-looking fellow, 

 one side brown, the other a creamy white. The cod 

 will live in the boxes about eight weeks ; they have no 

 food given them. The halibuts will also live from eight 

 to nine weeks. A cod weighing 50 Ib. is considered to 

 be a large fish. ... A 7o-lb. cod is the largest ever 

 known." 



Buckland described a remarkable sight he saw while 

 walking round the dock. He noticed some men hauling 

 at a rope which was evidently made fast to something 

 very heavy. When this body came to the surface he 

 was astonished to find that it consisted of a solid mass 

 of live cod, each fish being tied by the tail to a rope. 



