THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 235 



later period ; but the results were very unsatisfactory, and 

 the vessels took out of the country's pocket in premiums 

 some four-fifths of the total value they brought into it in 

 blubber and whalebone. Such was the effect of the 

 " indemnification ' bounty before mentioned, which was 

 paid to whalers, not for the fish they caught, but for those 

 they failed to catch.* 



Iceland cod-fishery also continued in a state of extreme 

 insignificance,! having never recovered the effects of the 

 prohibitive duties on salt cod and haddock levied in foreign 

 countries, in the latter part of the eighteenth century.J 

 Hook-fishery in the North Sea continued to be of im- 

 portance, as a complement of the several herring-fisheries. 



This branch of sea-fisheries, as to which I have not 

 succeeded in finding sufficient information at earlier periods, 

 at the time now spoken of bore something of an universal 

 character. It was exercised in herring-busses or " hookers," 

 in sloops, and in bum-boats. Herring-fishers of all de- 

 scriptions made hooking their business at times when 

 nature provided no herring, or law forbade to catch it. 

 Most or all herring-busses used to go for cod and plaice in 

 spring, and continue the business till the end of May or 

 the first days of June, when the time came to prepare for 

 the first herring voyage. The lines used in this early 

 hook-fishery were made out of a peculiar kind of hemp 

 named kol ; whence this branch of hook-fishery was 

 commonly called kolvaart, and a hooking voyage arranged 

 so as to be back in time to equip the vessel for the cure- 

 herring season took the name of kolreis. Besides, some 



* See Minister Thorbecke's speech on premiums in the Second 

 Chamber, on December 2ist, 1850. 

 f See Appendix H. 

 % See part ii. chap. iii. 



R 2 



