, 1885-10-09
= FISH THAT TAKE BALLAST.
How the Cod Saves Himseif-A Weather
sign-Hooks and Lines.

S~ign-Hooks and Lines.
That a fish should even do anything so
unfishlike as to take in ballast would
strike many people as paradoxical. Yet
those who have gone to sea in ships and
are learned in 6n-bearers' lore testify to
the reality of this phenomenon. The
cod is the fish which lays himself open
to this cruel charge, and is known to
actually gulp down stones almost as
large as a foot ball and more than one of
them, too. Why it does so a reporter
learned from q veteran codfisherman re
Gently.
why, yes" said he, ~of course cod
fish take in ballast. Why, I've found
q yht or ten stones inside the fish's nav
alter we've caught him. The cod takes
in stone in order to keep himself at the
bottom during II gale. When you are
cod fishing you can always tell if there is
to be a gale, or whether 4 gale has Just
passed that way. Then you get in a
regular quarry. A good gale of course
carries the cod up to the surface, where
he has n hard time of it. You see there
is n sort Of bladder which forms in his
jaw and runs out sometimes as far rs a
foot or so. This bladder fills with air
and floats the fish, and keeps him from
going down. SO in order to prevent that
he picks out sound stones on the sea
bottoms and swallows them. Sea ele-
plants do the same thing, and often
hugh stones are found in their stomachs."
How is the cod caughtlH the reporter
asked.
They are caught on 'trollers,' There
q a lnpn limo o-sruppar , fgharunap coll
1t, and at every fourteen or eighteen feet
a short line five or six feet long is
fastened. | used to have on my runners
rs many as 300 hooks baited. The line
would be baited on board ship, and the
whole 'snood' would be coiled up into a
tup tapering toward the bottom so as to
give the line play. The coiling is very
important, and you must take great care
with it so as not to snarl the lines.
For bait, dogfish, whitefish and such
like in chunks bigger than your hand
are hooked on. The boats put off
with the tup in the bow, and when
we'd get to a good spot the man in the
bow passes the line all baited to the stern
man, who throws il overheard rs fast
as it is paid out. 1t used to go out pretty
fast sometimes when the tide was run
ming strong, and many a fellow has got
his fingers ripped open on the hooks.
The whole line would then be anchored,
and we'd wait until slack water came,
which would be in five or six hours, and
then haul in.
That used to be hard work. The fish
would run small and large, and we would
hook on skates and dogfish and whitefish
and Others besides the cod. Once when
we were pulling up anchor we hauled in
a big stone which weighed 300 pounds
and was full of scallops and mussels
and long and round clans.
when we got the catch back to the
smack we'd dress the fish and stow them
away in fine ice. We used to work day
and night sometimes, and once, off Cape
Sable, | slept only nine hours in five days
and nights. A shipload which averaged
sixty pounds to the fish used to be con
sidered a good one. Sometimes the aver
age would run as high as 100 pounds.
The cod runs all the way from fifteen to
200 and 300 pounds in weight. l once
caught n which weighed over 800
pounds. New Haven News.