BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 349 



to about 1,000 head of cattle. The anuual total value of the British 

 sea-fisheries is 500,000,000 marks ($119,000,000). 



Norway, with its imfavorable climate aud its small population of 

 about 1,800,000, annually exports 50,000,000 marks' worth of fisher3^ 

 products (§11,900,000)' which does not include the amount consumed 

 at home, valued at from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 marks ($3,570,000 to 

 $4,760,000). 



France employs 22,000 boats with 80,000 men in the sea-fisheries 

 proper, and 40,000 persons (mostly women and children) in the coast- 

 fisheries, the total yield amounting in value to 70,000,000 marks ($16, 

 660,000). 



Italy's harvest of the sea annually amounts to 40,000.000 marks 

 ($9,520,000) ; and Russia's annual harvest from the sea-fisheries alone 

 amounts to 70,000,000 marks ($16,660,000). 



The German Empire, on the other hand, and the Austro-Hungarian 

 Empire, whose combined population is about one fourth of the entire 

 population of Europe, and whose coasts are washed by the waters of 

 three seas rich in fish, have as yet done but little towards the cultiva- 

 tion of the sea, and towards gathering; in the harvests which it affords 

 to any one who stretches out his hands. According to official statis- 

 tics the entire German coast states have not more than 30 large fishing 

 establishments, employing about 300 persons, while the small estab- 

 lishments number 10,700, emjiloying about 14,000 persons, making an 

 average of hardly 1^ persons to each establishment. This state of 

 affairs can scarcely be considered satisfactory, considering the fact that 

 Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, the two 

 Mecklenburgs, Oldenburg, and finally Prussia, with its long coast line 

 from Stralsuud to Memel, offer numerous ojiportunities for maritime 

 enterprise. Unfortunately there are hardly any exact and special data 

 as regards the annual result of the German sea-fisheries. Even the 

 voluminous and expensive official report of the Berlin International 

 Fishery Exposition of 1880 does not give the desired information. 

 From various commercial reports we gather the fact that the entire 

 quantity of products of the sea imported into Germany in 1882 repre- 

 sented a value of 77,000,000 marks ($18,326,000), including 52,800,000 

 marks' ($12,560,400) worth of salt herring! But it is not stated in 

 these reports how much of this quantity was imported by foreign fish- 

 ermen in vessels sailing under foreign flags. 



Even in such a specifically German ocean as the North Sea we find 

 but comparatively few German fishing vessels, while the English, 

 Dutch, Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians enrich themselves from this 

 sea, and thereby also increase their naval strength. The annual result 

 of the Austrian sea-fisheries, which emploj' about 9,400 persons and 

 2,900 boats, scarcely reaches 4,000,000 marks ($952,000), and therefore 

 bears no i)roportion to the wealth of fish contained in the Adriatic, and 

 to a coast line extending for more than 2,600 nautical miles. 



