144 NEW SOUTH WALES 
Fishing-vessels of that description could with safety go out to sea in 
any weather and take supplies and all sorts of fishing-gear for a week’s 
consumption ; the crew should be experienced fishermen, and if possible 
be themselves the proprietors. The cost of the vessel with a complete 
outfit of everything required would probably be little short of £4,000. 
The expenditure weekly, including £2 a week for the wages of each of 
the crew and interest at 10 per cent. on the capital invested, 
would be (say) wages £24, interest £8, add £10 for losses and wear 
and tear—£42 per week. This is taking the expenses at an extreme 
figure ; a moderate calculation of the week’s receipts would show a much 
larger return. In the course of the week itis pretty certain that twelve 
fishermen with good appliances will catch at least 4 tons of fish, and 
taking these at the low estimate of £20 per ton—less than half the 
price of salted and dried ling—the weekly profit would be nearly 100 
per cent. on the outlay. Besides, we may fairly calculate that the best 
ofthe fish will, as they are caught, be at once cleaned and placed in the ice- 
house, and these of course will realize a much higher price than above 
estimated. With vessels too, so commodious as these, everything may 
be utilized and nothing should be lost; the inferior fish, or those not 
worthy of being put in ice, should be salted on the spot, the air-bladders 
should be washed and dried at once, particularly those of the jew-fish, 
teraglin, and silver eel, and even the sharks may be made a source of 
profit by the saving of the fins and the oil from the liver. The prime 
fish, such as black rock-cod, schnapper, nannygey, gurnard, Sergeant 
Baker, &c., brought in the ice-chests of these vessels would of course re- 
quire to be received into a cool room the moment of their arrival ; but 
the advantages attending the use of ice are becoming so fully recognized 
now, and the ice itself is to be got at such a moderate price, that there 
is little doubt that every fishmonger will be amply supplied with all that 
is necessary to keep the fish fresh. It should be understood that it is 
exceedingly injurious that fish should be ever frozen, but kept at a 
temperature of 32° F. they undergo no change, and retain all the excel- 
lence of the most freshly caught fish. 
Some improvements on the present mode of line-fishing might also be 
attempted. On the Newfoundland banks, and in the North Sea fisheries 
of Norway, the “bultow” is much used for the capture of the cod and 
other fish. The following description of the ‘‘bultow,” as used by the 
French fishermen at Newfoundland, is taken from “Simmonds”Com- 
mercial Products of the Sea,” page 27 :—“'The bultow is a long line, 
with hooks fastened along its whole length, at regular distances, by 
shorter and smaller cords, called ‘snoods,’ which are 6 feet long, and are 
placed on the long line 12 feet apart, to prevent the hooks becoming en- 
tangled. Near the hooks these shorter lines, or snoods, are formed of 
separate threads, loosely fastened together, to guard against the teeth of 
the fish. Buoys, buoy-ropes, and anchors or grapnels are fixed to each 
end of the line, and the lines are always laid, or, as it is termed ‘shot,’ 
across the tide, for if the tide runs upon the end of the line the hooks 
will become entangled, and the fishing will be wholly lost—for the 
deep sea fisheries the bultow is of great length. The French fishing- 
vessels, after anchoring on the bank, in about 45 fathoms of water, run 
out about 100 fathoms of cable, and prepare to catch cod ‘with two lines, 
each 3,000 fathoms in length. The snoods are arranged as previously 
