the last-named localities they are largely used as an article of food. The flesh of the hake is white and firm, and though not so good as that of the cod, is still sufficiently palatable to be more esteemed than it actually is in the London markets. The greater part of the hake supplied to Londoners are cut in pieces, and salted and smoked for the breakfast-table. Those sold fresh are dressed in the same manner as cod, and served either with oyster or barberry sauce. Hake are taken with the hook and line in large quantities on the Cornish coast in the same manner as cod on the coast of Newfoundland, the bait used being a piece of herring or pilchard; one herring is divided into about six baits, each a couple of inches in length. The hake follow the shoals of pilchards round the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall in vast numbers, in the same manner as the cod are always to be found in the wake of a shoal of herrings. As the hake, moreover, possesses a quantity of sharp saw-like teeth, it is often very destructive to the nets of the herring and pilchard fishermen, since, like the dog-fish, it is not particular in its appetite, but rends the nets in pieces, swallowing both the netting and the pilchards enmeshed therein. A good deal of trouble, too, is caused the fishermen by the bite of the hake, which leaves a jagged wound often dangerous. Hake run to a very large size,—ten pounds being very small, twenty pounds quite common, and thirty, or even forty, not out of the way. They are in season at the same times as cod-fish and haddock, and are supposed, by good authorities, to spawn early in the spring, which is probable, as the cod spawns from February until April, and the hake, in its habits, rather closely resembles its last named relation. Few persons except professional fisherman are in the habit of catching hake, and I have not myself practised the fishery as a pastime, although I have frequently seen hake taken. When fishing with hook and line for hake, it is necessary to protect the space immediately above the hook with stout wire, or something equally strong, in the same manner as gimp is used for jack-fishing in fresh waters. The teeth of the hake being of so sharp a nature give the fish the power of easily sundering anything in the way of mere netting or cord. These fish form a considerable staple of the fish-trade on the Dutch and Norwegian coasts, and I have before observed that Norway is a prolific fish country, and more especially abounds with edible Crustacea. Most Scotch "gude wives" are well enough familiar with the hake, and find it a very acceptable preliminary to their "kail broth." In Shetland, where the various methods of taking sea fish may be almost said to be in-born with the population, hake are no unimportant articles of traffic. But the great object with the fishermen of the islands mentioned is to secure a good herring season—or "harvest" as they term it. And harvest in fact it is, since on it depend the hopes of many families through out a long and dreary winter. Although, perhaps, a little out of place here, I cannot refrain from observing that the number of persons in the British Isles to whom the herring furnishes the means of livelihood would be simply discredited by the uninitiated. Independently of the men positively engaged in the fishery, and the families depending on them, the number of men, women, and children employed in washing, salting, spitting, and curing the fish is positively astounding. The "spitting" of the fish on long wooden rods for curing is, in many large establishments, the work solely of women and children, and the salting of fresh and dried herrings affords a livelihood in London alone to thousands of costermongers of both sexes, added to which, if I were to take into consideration all the "hands," male and female, engaged in the production of the nets (a very important and distinct branch of trade), I should produce a sum total of persons directly or indirectly benefitted by the herring, which would, I am confident, surprise all my readers.
Hake may be taken generally all the year round, but it is in the pilchard and herring season that they are most abundantly caught, for the reason above given. A favourite method with country people of curing the hake is by slightly salting it, and then smoking it a few days over a peat fire. In some districts the wood of an old black-currant bush is used for the purpose, and is supposed to give the fish a racy and "toothsome" flavour. Many country people, to whom hake are sold by the fishermen (ready cut up), mistake the fish for cod, and treat them accordingly, which, however, is of little consequence, as hake are very good dressed cod-fashion. I am unable to give any estimate of the number of hake supplied to the London markets, as the demand is very irregular, and the fishery rarely practised alone, but only incidentally, whilst taking other fish. Many of the readers of this paper will, no doubt, have seen (and perhaps some have been puzzled by) a curious lengthy fish, something between a conger-eel and an elongated cod-fish, lying on the fish monger's slabs, and peculiarly noticeable for its terrible-looking teeth. The fish in question is our friend the hake.
