OSSEOUS FISHES. 
547 
manned by thirty thousand seamen, are now employed in this im- 
portant branch of industry. 
On the coast of .Norway, from the frontiers of Russia to Cape 
Lindesnms, the cod-fishery is an important branch of trade, in which 
a maritime population of twenty thousand fishermen are employed, with 
five thousand boats. 
The cod is taken either by net or line. The net is chiefly employed 
at Newfoundland. The net used is rectangular, and furnished with 
lead at the lower edge, and cork buoys on the upper edge. One of 
the extremities is fixed on the coast j the other is carried seaward, 
following a curve taken by the boats, and the fish are attracted by 
drawing upon both extremities of the net ; and by one stroke many 
boat-loads are sometimes taken. 
The modern cod-smack is clipper-built, with large wells for carrying 
the fish alive, its cost being about £1500. The crew usually consists 
of ten to twelve men and boys, including the captain. The line is 
also used for taking cod and haddocks. “ Each man,” says Bertram, 
“ has a line of fifty fathoms in length, and attached to each of these 
lines are a hundred ‘ snoods,’ with hooks already baited with mussels 
pieces of herring, or whiting. Each line is laid * clear,’ in a shallow 
basket, and so arranged as to run freely as the boat shoots ahead. 
The fifty-fathom line with a hundred hooks is in Scotland called a 
‘ taes.’ If there are eight men in a boat, the length of the line will 
be four hundred fathoms, with eight hundred hooks, the lines being 
tied to each other before setting. On arriving at the fishing-ground, 
the fishermen heave overboard a cork buoy, with a flagstaff about 
six feet in height attached to it. This buoy is kept stationary by a 
line, called the ‘ pow end," reaching to the bottom of the water, where 
it is held by a stone or a grapnel fastened to the lower end. To the 
‘ pow end is also fastened the fishing fine, which is then paid out as 
fast as the boat sails, which may be from four to five knots an hour. 
Should the wind be unfavourable; for the direction in which the crew 
wish' to set the line, they use the oars. When the line or ‘ taes’ is all 
out, the end is dropped and the boat returns to the buoy. The ‘ pow ’ 
line is hauled up with the anchor and fishing line attached to it. The 
fishermen then haul in the line, with the fish attached to it. Eight 
hundred fish might be taken, and often have been, by eight men in a 
few hours by this operation ; but many fishermen say now, that they 
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