BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 359 



179.— BRIEF IVOTES UPON FIi<«II Aivi) FISHERIE^i 



By CHAS. \%\ SMILEYi 



[Mainly extracts froui the official correspondence.^ 



Prices of small nets. — For the benefit of correspondents wlio ar6 

 continually inquiring about nets for taking carp and other pond fish, the 

 followi ig prices are quoted from the catalogue of William Mills & Son, 

 7 Warren street, New York. Probably other dealers furnish about the 

 same things at corresponding prices : 



Fine mesh, minnow nets 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Cotton dip nets, three-quarter inch mesh 



Do 



Do 



Linen 

 (each). 



45 

 50 

 50 

 65 

 75 

 00 

 25 

 50 

 50 



A SUGGESTION FOR AVOIDING THE DANGER INCIDENT TO THE 

 TRANSFER OF FISH FROM THE SMACKS TO THE COLLECTING STEAM- 

 ERS. — Mr. John Bland, of 62 Harley street, Cavendish Square W., 

 London, writing under date of December 17, 1883, to General Chester 

 A. Arthur, President of the United States, makes the following sug- 

 gestion : 



"In a paper read at one of the conferences held in connection with 

 the exhibition it was said that one of the most arduous and dan- 

 gerous duties of the modern sea-fisherman was to carry the fish from the 

 smack in which they were caught, to the collecting steamer, more lives 

 being lost in this part of the work than in any other. It is obvious that 

 it would be very imprudent in rough weather for the steamer to attempt 

 to stay alongside the smack a sufficient length of time for the whole of 

 the take to be transferred directly from one to the other, so a small boat 

 has to go to and fro several times, to the great risk of its occupants. 



"An extremely simple and inexpensive method of saving this danger- 

 ous labor has occurred to me. I would suggest that, at a distance of sixty 

 or a hundred yards, the collecting steamer throw by rocket a slight line 

 to the smack. By means of this line the smack would draw to itself an 

 endless rope, to be arranged over a loose block G or 8 feet above 

 the deck. A box or barrel of fish would be attached to the lower part 

 of the rope, by means of a simple hook, then dropped overboard and 

 drawn to the steamer by steam power. A few minutes immersion would 



