146 GADID^. 



are deposited generally about the time of slack water, be- 

 tween each ebb and flow, and are taken up or hauled for 

 examination after being left about six hours, or one flood 

 or ebb. 



An improvement upon this more common plan was some 

 years ago suggested by Mr. Cobb, who was sent to the 

 Shetlands by the Commissioners appointed for the improve- 

 ment of the fisheries. He fixed a small piece of cork within 

 a certain distance of the hook, about twelve inches, which 

 suspended and floated the bait so as to prevent its falling on 

 the ground; by which method the bait was more freely shown 

 to the fish, by the constant and variable motion produced 

 upon it by the tide. In the old way, the bait was frequently 

 hid from the fish by being covered with seaweed, or was 

 consumed by some of the numerous Star-fish and Crabs that 

 infest the ground. 



The fishermen, when not engaged in shooting, hauling, or 

 rebaiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, armed with two 

 hooks kept apart by a strong piece of wire : each fisherman 

 manages two lines, holding one line in each hand ; a heavy 

 weight is attached to the lower end of the line not far from 

 the hooks, to keep the bait down near the ground, where the 

 fish principally feed. These two modes of line-fishing are 

 practised to a great extent nearly all round the coast ; and 

 enormous quantities of Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Coalfish, 

 Pollack, Hake, Ling, Torsk, and all the various flat-fish, 

 usually called by the general name of whitefish, are taken. 

 Of Codfish alone, the number taken in one day is very con- 

 siderable ; from four hundred to five hundred and fifty fish 

 have been caught on the banks of Newfoundland in ten or 

 eleven hours by one man ; and a master of fishing-vessels 

 trading for the London market told me that eight men, 

 fishing under his orders off the Dogger Bank, in twenty-five 



