

FISHING-VILLAGES AND FISHING-IMPLEMENTS IN DENMARK. 179 



and can be divided into two parts. Snekkersteen owns 140 such nets, 

 and Skotterup 40. They cost from 10 to 20 rigsdalers each. A horu- 

 fish-uet costs from 12 to 1G rigsdalers, and the two fishing villages own 

 about 50 of them. Of mackerel-nets Snekkersteen own 130 and Skot- 

 terup 54, the price of these being from 10 to 16 rigsdalers each. 



2dand30. Mackerel Nets.— The so-called "sinallnets" play an important 

 part in the fishery on this coast, and they are consequently manufactured 

 of many different sizes to suit all circumstances. They are twice the 

 usual length, and can be separated into two parts. While the poorer 

 fishermen do not possess any casting-nets or bow-nets, there is not one 

 of them who does not own several " small nets." They are used all the 

 year round for haddock, flounders, turbots, dabs, &c. Salmon or stur- 

 geon are sometimes caught in them, and occasionally a lobster or crab 

 finds his way into them ; perhaps a mackerel, and even wild ducks ; and 

 more rarely yet a porpoise, which becomes strangled iu the meshes from 

 want of air. 



31 to 41. "Small-nets" of different sizes. — These cost about 8 rigsdalers 

 each. Snekkersteen owns about a thousand of them, and Skotterup 

 two hundred and fifty. 



During the summer the fishermen cast their nets for plaice in the 

 neighborhood of the island of Llveen, (about the middle of the sound.) 

 The fish caught there are of a very superior quality, and often very large. 

 Some have been caught weighing 10^ Danish pounds, (1 Danish pound 

 is equal to 1.101 pounds avoirdupois;) and fish weighing from 4 to 6 

 pounds are frequently caught. Turbots are also often taken here, the 

 largest, as far as known, weighing 30 Danish pounds. These fish are 

 sold almost exclusively in the Elsinore market or to the ships lying at 

 anchor there. The fisherman rises very early in summer-time, mostly 

 between 1 and 2 o'clock, a. m. He first observes the weather, and if it 

 be favorable he hurriedly dresses and hastens down to his boat, for the 

 fish must be in the Elsinore market as early as G o'clock. He is soon 

 in his boat, and speeds swiftly toward the place where the nets have 

 been cast the previous day. "While one of the fishermen plies both oars, 

 the other draws in the nets. Others are cast out irumediatel}', and, row- 

 ing rapidly, the boat soon approaches the coast again. There his wife 

 and children meet him, help him to draw the net on land, and to take 

 out the fish and sort them. In a few minutes they are packed on a 

 wheelbarrow and one of the fisherman's children or his wife wheels them 

 to the market, and at 7 o'clock a. m., not a fish is to be had. 



As soon as the nets are dry they are mended, stretched out on poles, 

 and loaded down with stones, to prevent the wind from carrying them 

 away, so as to be ready for the next day's work. All this keeps the 

 fisherman and his family busy during the day. Every now and then 

 the nets are boiled in lye or tree-bark, with an addition of soda or pot- 

 ash. 



42. The so-called " livistelcjvcppcf a sort of switch or broom, is a very 



