18 SEA-FISH. 
A bait in favour with many, but one with which I 
am bound to admit I have not had wonderful 
results, the cockle, is too well known to 
need many words. What is less generally known 
perhaps is that cockles are able to leap on the wet 
sand, and that, if placed on the sand near the water’s 
edge, they will at once make straight for the sea. 
Small as is our species, it has American relatives, 
specimens of which have been dredged weighing as 
much as three-quarters of a ton, their scientific 
name denoting that it would take three bites to 
finish them ! 
Cockle 
Type of a large and important family, that also 
includes such sporting fish as the pollack 
and whiting, the cod is for the most part a 
fish of deep water, though a number approach the 
coasts in winter, usually between October and 
Christmas, and are then angled for, especially at 
Deal. This fish is found more particularly, 
though not exclusively, in cold seas, and has the 
family beard, the young, or “codlings,” being 
spotted. It is caught on our shores weighing 
50 lbs.; but the amateur will not in all pro- 
bability meet with any of more than half that 
weight. Though found indifferently on the sand 
or among the rocks, the edge of a reef is found to 
be the best ground for inshore cod. 
Cod 
Conger-fishing is not every man’s pastime, for it 
entails a good deal of roughing it, night- 
fishing among the rest. The conger, the 
female of which grows to a length of 8 ft., commonly 
5 ft., and a weight of near 100 lbs., is a scaleless 
cel, distinguished from the river-eel by the con- 
Conger 
