CODS. 
253 
their intertwining ; these are shot across the 
course of the tide. The other mode is by hand- 
lines, of which each fisherman holds two, one in 
each hand, and each line bears two hooks at its 
extremity, which are kept apart by a stout wire 
going from one to the other. A heavy leaden 
weight is attached near the hooks, and thus the 
fisherman feels when his bait is off the ground. 
He continually jerks them up and down, and is 
thus aware of a fish the moment it is secured. 
Although this seems a somewhat tedious process 
of fishing compared with the immense draughts 
of the net, it is found in skilful hands to be 
productive : eight men on the Dogger-bank have 
taken eighty score of Cod in a day. 
As in the Cod the peculiar texture and arrange- 
ment of the muscles, laid in broad thin parallel 
flakes, are more obvious than in most other fishes, 
we will take occasion here to quote a few obser- 
vations of Professor Owen’s on the nature of 
muscle in this Class of Vertebrata. The mus- 
cular tissue {myonine) of fishes is usually colour- 
less, often opaline, or yellowish ; white when 
boiled : the muscles of the pectoral fins of the 
Sturgeon and Shark are, however, deeper colour- 
ed than the others ; and most of the muscles of 
the Tunny are red, like those of the warm-blooded 
Classes. The want of colour relates to the com- 
paratively small proportion of red blood circu- 
lated through the muscular system; and to the 
smaller proportion of red particles in the blood 
of fishes : the exceptions cited seem to depend 
on increased circulation, with great energy of 
action ; and, in the Bonito and Tunny, with a 
greater quantity of blood, and a higher tempera- 
