THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. 675 



methods of fishing termed a cocchia or alfondo, and those termed a bra- 

 gozzo or a tartana. 



Fishing a cocchia is carried on with a deep, narrow-meshed net, taper- 

 ing off into a long bag, which by leaden weights is lowered to a great 

 depth, even to the bottom of the sea, where it is dragged along by two 

 boats sailing parallel with each other at a small distance apart. Fishing a 

 hragozzo or a tartana is carried on with a similar net, which, however, is 

 only fastened to one boat by means of poles. As these nets, which are 

 frequently many hundred feet long, are for hours dragged along the 

 bottom of the sea, before the fishermen haul them in at some point 

 which long experience has indicated to them as particularly favorable, 

 they catch not merely all the fish in those portions of the sea, but like- 

 wise destroy the algoe and sea-weeds growing on the bottom. 



Fishing a tartana has been carried on from time immemorial, while 

 fishing a cocchia came into use on our coasts only during the last cent- 

 ury. 



The greatest masters of fishing a cocchia are the inhabitants of the 

 island of Chioggia near Venice, who visit all the Austrian coasts, 

 especially those of Dalmatia. 



Since the middle of the last century, there has been no lack of prohi- 

 bitions against both these methods of fishing, which, however, have in- 

 variably soon been revoked or permitted to fall into disuse. 



There have been different causes for such contradictory measures. It 

 could not, on the one hand, be proved that these methods of fishing had 

 diminished the number of fish very materially. Just as the harvests 

 of fields vary in different years, so was the decrease in the quantity 

 of marine products only a temporary one ; in a few years, the fish came 

 again in large numbers, and certain species which had disappeared 

 entirely, returned after some time. 



It must be granted, on the other hand, that fishing a cocchia is 

 undoubtedly the most ingenious and efficient method employed on our 

 coasts, which has been settled on by the fishermen after long thought, 

 and the experience of many years, and that it would be exceedingly 

 difficult to substitute any other method. It was not only a feeling of 

 pity for the families of poor fishermen which prompted the authorities 

 to relax their severe measures, which generally were caused by the loud 

 complaints of some community on the coast, desirous of obtaining a 

 secure monopoly by excluding all strangers ; but as long as no sufficient 

 proof has been adduced of the injurious character of these methods of 

 fishing, such prohibitory measures would only tend to raise the price of 

 fish, and, in this manner, they would be anything but beneficial to the 

 poor fishermen and the general public. 



Fishing a cocchia is, at any rate, almost impossible on most coasts on 

 account of the uneven, and especially the rising bottom, and the dense 

 growth of sea-weeds on which fish deposit their spawn ; if, therefore, a few 



