972 



SCANDINAVIAN FISIIF.S. 



in a vertical position". In the Noi'th-Sea fisheries one 

 of these 'fleets' of nets fi-equently extends to a length 

 of a mile and a (juarter or more. The net is shot in 

 the evening and hanled up in the morning. During the 

 night it is allowed to drift with tlie boat, the warp 

 being made fast in the bows. Drift-nets may also be 

 used as fiill-nefs, the two ends being anchored ; but the 

 common gill-net, called sJiute in the Baltic, ndr'nui in 

 Halland, is of simpler construction and resembles the 

 net used in fresh-water fishing. In recent times the 

 North American'' pitrse-seine has been introduced into 

 Europe and employed in the Bohuslan fishery. It is a 

 deep seine, with stout and closely corked head-rt)pe but, 

 strictly speaking, without foot-line, which is replaced 

 by a purse-line running free through rings. The seine 

 is shot in a circle round a shoal of fish swimming at 

 the surface; and when the circle is complete, and the 



/ / / 



Fig. 244. Stake-not from tlie Somul. 



net walls in the shoal, the jjurse-line is hauled in, till 

 the seine assumes the shape of a bag. The Imid-seiue 

 is an engine as common and well-knmvn as any kind 

 of net; but in the, Herring-fishery it attains its maxi- 



mum dimensions, being so long and deep that whole 

 arms of the sea or great portions thereof may be en- 

 closed so as to bar the Herring's retreat. The fish are 

 then secured in smaller seines. The construction of 

 the sfaki'-itef {hiindgarn, fig. 244) we have described 

 above (p. ;^52). 



The voracity i>f the Hei'ring is such tiiat it may 

 also be taken with hook and line, and sometimes no 

 bait is necessarv, the mere glitter of the dancing hook 

 being sufficient to entice the fish. 



The annual take of Herrings can hardly be esti- 

 mated; it must amount to thousands of millions. In 

 the Baltic and the Sound more than 200,000 barrels of 

 Strommings and Herrings, valued at about £16(5,600, 

 are taken yearly by Swedish fishermen. A barrel of 

 Str5mmings contains on an average more than 2,200 

 fish. It is estimated that 1,900 — 2,000 Scanian Herrings 

 go to the barrel. According to these estimates the 

 average annual catch of the S^vedish fishermen alone 

 exceeds four hundred million Str5mraings and Herrings, 

 and we may surely assiune that the Finiush, Russian, 

 German, and Danish fishermen together take at least 

 three times as many. To judge fi'om Dr. A. H. Malm's 

 latest reports on the Bohuslan fisherj', the average an- 

 nual take of Herrings for the fishing-seasons 1888 — 92 

 Mas about five or six hundred millions, a hectolitre 

 containing at least 300 Herrings. The average annual 

 value of this fisherj' for the said four seasons was about 

 £100,000, but in 1891—92 the value rose to £180,000. 



The several takes are given in the following extracts 

 from Dr. k. H. Malm's "Reports on the Sea- fisheries of 

 the Pi'ovince of Gothenburg and Bohus"'": 



The value of tlic Halland Herring-fishery for the 

 year ISflO is estimated by Mr. TRYHt).M, Assistant In- 



spector of Fisheries, at £3,272, and foi' the year 1891 

 at £3,G60. The Herring-fishery of Denmark yielded in 



" For a more minute description of the drift-net see Hoi.nswoBTH, Deep-iSea Fis/iimj and Fishing Boat^-. p. 100; Lundrerg, Mediiel. 

 riirnnde Sveriges Fiskericr, Hiift. I, p. 33, with illustr. 



'' At the Fisheries Exhibition (London, 1883) a net of this kind, coming from (.'ornwiill, was catalogued as original. 



"■ These reports do not take into account that portion oi the fishery which falls to the share of fishermen from Halland. 



