4 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



It is probable, however, that the information on this subject that has 

 been obtained at the exhibition and elsewhere will be sufiQcient to en- 

 able our fishermen to use gill-nets for cod with success. 



It was the original intention of Professor Baird that a report of the 

 observations made at the Berlin exhibition should be published as soon 

 after the return of the commissioners as possible, but circumstances 

 delayed for a time its preparation. 



The use of gill-nets in the cod-fisheries at Ipswich Bay the present 

 winter — an account of which will be given — has resulted in complete 

 success, and there is strong probability that they will be introduced 

 into the bank-fisheries, as well as those along the coast ; therefore. Pro- 

 fessor Baird has suggested the prepara.tion of this pamphlet by the 

 writer, and it is hoped that it may serve the purpose for which it is in- 

 tended, by supplying information that may lead to the more profitable 

 prosecution of the American cod- fisheries. 



Acknowledgments are due to Mr. Frederik M. Wallem, the !N"orwegian 

 Commissioner to the Berlin exhibition, for information furnished con- 

 cerning the gill-nets and their use in the Norwegian cod -fisheries. The 

 account of the Newfoundland cod gill-nets, methods of fishing, t&c, is 

 given largely on the authority of Capt. Solomon Jacobs, of Gloucester, 

 Mass., who is a native of Newfoundland, and has had considerable ex- 

 perience in the cod-fisheries along the east coast of that island. 



B.— CONSTRUCTION AND RIG OF THE NETS. 



1. — Norwegian JiETnoDS. 



The nets used in the Norwegian cod-fisheries are usually made of hemp 

 twine, of two, three, or four threads, but occasionally of flax or cotton. 

 The three-layed hemp twine, which is the most common size, weighs a 

 pound to 400 or 120 fathoms. It is mostly spun on the spinning wheel 

 by the fishermen's families, and the nets are almost exclusively made by 

 the fishermen and their wives and children. Some of the hemp twine, 

 however, is furnished by the factories of Norway and Great Britain, 

 which also supply all of the cotton and linen twine. 



The size of the mesh varies some w hat, according to the locality where 

 the nets are to be used, as it is necessary to make the mesh correspond 

 to the size of the fish that frequent different parts of the coast, or make 

 their appearance at different; seasons. The smallest mesh is about 5| 

 inches (2^0 inches square) and the largest 8 inches (I inches square). 

 Those exhibited at Berlin were 7 and 8 inch mesh. 



The length of the nets varies from 10 to 20 fathoms, the average length 

 of those used at the Lofoten Islands being 15J fathoms, when hung, and 

 they are from twenty-five to sixty meshes deep. Nets about thirty 

 meshes deep are generally used, while those of sixty meshes are em- 

 ployed only where there is little or no current. The nets are hung both 

 to single and double lines, and these vary somewhat in size. Those ex- 



