Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/57

Rh the length of this line, short lines, called snoods, are placed, each of which carries a baited hook. The long-line is shot across the tide and allowed to sink to the bottom, and hauled up to be examined after the lapse of a tide, or six hours.

The second method is by hand-lines; where the fisherman carries a line in each hand, each line armed with two hooks kept apart by a strong wire; a leaden weight is employed to sink the hooks, as these fishes feed near the bottom; and he continually tries with his hands whether he has hooked a fish. For Cod-fish, when bait is scarce, it is dispensed with by the use of an instrument, called a jigger, consisting of two large hooks soldered together in the shanks by means of lead, which is made to assume the size and form of a small fish; the points of the hooks are turned in opposite directions. This double hook is dropped without bait, and is continually moved up and down by jerks. The shining lead attracts many Cods, so that the jigging is almost sure to hook many of the fish in succession, and sometimes even two at once. Of course they are often sadly lacerated, and as the hooks frequently break out, the fish escapes in a wounded condition, and this is thought to have a tendency to drive the shoals from the ground.

The capture of fishes for amusement, so much practised in this country, is called Angling; and calling into action, as it does, skill and dexterity, as well as knowledge derived from experience and tradition, and embracing many rules embodied in treatises of acknowledged authority, is by some elevated to the rank of a science. It has been said that angling is pre-eminently an