216 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



well as of the numbers of the cod, when we hear that in the 

 course of a single day a good fisherman is able to haul up four 

 hundred one after another with his line — no easy task con- 

 sidering the size of the fish, which often attains a length of 

 from two to three feet and a weight of from twenty to forty 

 pounds. 



The captured fish have but little time left them to bewail, 

 their lot, for a few thousands will be " dressed down " — that is, 

 gutted, boned and salted — in the course of two or three hours. 

 For this purpose the crew divide themselves into throaters,. 

 headers, splitters, salters, and packers. First the throater 

 passes his sharp knife across the throat of the unfortunate cod 

 to the bone and rips open the bowels. He then passes it quickly 

 to the header, who with a strong sudden wrench pulls off the 

 head and tears out the entrails, which he casts overboard, passing 

 at the same time the fish instantly to the splitter, who with one 

 cut lays it open from head to tail, and almost in the twinkling, 

 of an eye 'with another cut takes out the backbone. After 

 separating the sounds, which are placed with the tongues, and 

 packed in barrels as a great delicacy, the backbone follows the 

 entrails overboard, while the fish at the same moment is passed 

 with the other hand to the Salter. Such is the amazing quick- 

 ness of the operations of heading and splitting that a good 

 workman will often decapitate and take out the entrails and 

 back-bone of six fish in a minute. Every fisherman is supposed 

 to know something of each of these operations, and no rivals at 

 cricket ever entered with more ardour into their work than do 

 some athletic champions for the palm of "dressing down" after 

 a " day's catch." 



Besides its excellent firm flesh, the liver-oil of the cod is used 

 as a valuable medicine, and serves to restore many a scrofulous 

 or rickety child to health. The sound-bladder is also employed 

 by the Icelanders for the manufacture of fish-lime or isinglass. 

 The best quality of the latter article, however, is afforded by a 

 species of Sturgeon {Accijpenser Huso) which is chiefly found in 

 the Black and Caspian seas, and ascends the tributary rivers in 

 immense numbers. 



The Common Sturgeon {Accijpenser sturio), though principally 

 frequenting the seas and rivers of North-Eastern Europe, where,, 

 especialh' in the Volga, extensive fisheries are established for its 



