44 
4. Unpractised people have met with difficulties also in lowering the 
seine, partly because the seine runs foul, partly because they fear that the 
lme shall get into the propeller. The following is the best way of ma- 
noeuvering. If the seine is to be lowered starboard, the vessel must have 
the wind in nearly on the starboard beam. Immediately before the seine is 
let down, the engine is stopped, so that tlie vessel keeps some speed 
ahead; this should not be lost till the seine is so far out that the tow-rope 
can be caught up in a snatch-block on the quarter of the vessel, abaft the 
propeller, while the seine is abaft the vessel. You may now manoeuver 
just at you like, only the vessel must not go astern, and not lie still; 
then the tow-rope can never get into the propeller. You now veer away 
the rope through the snatch-block, the rope constantly pointing somewhat 
astern. If you have ouly speed enough, you may veer away much line, if 
you like, but you must take care that the tow-rope is always taut; after- 
wards you may slacken your speed, and let the seine sink to the bottom. — 
When the seine is to be hoisted up again, the line must out of the snatch- 
block; the latter, therefore, must be constructed so as to be able to swing 
round a link, as on every steam-trawler: The line will then go forward, 
where it is easiest to heave up the seine clear of the propeller; hut also 
during the heavingin you must have the wind (or the current) starboard, 
so that the vessel may drive clear of the seine; otherwise it will come under 
the keel. 
5. In Spitzbergen, where I stayed for some time this year together 
with Dr. Hjort, and where we employed a little otter-seine of my own con- 
struction, the whole seme, with the exception of the headrope and ground- 
1ope, was once lost, because the rich laminaria-vegetation tore away the net 
from the ropes, the plants beginning to tear the meshes to pieces close to 
the boards where the arms begin. I believe that this may be avoided by 
running a strong string through the meshes from the headrope to the 
groundrope on either arm, at the foremost end of the same. This is a difficulty 
I never before met with. 
6. Since I wrote about these otter-seines, in 1898, I have tried to use 
real English trawls in the same way, viz. im crowfoot and with a single 
tow-rope, so that both boards are hauled on board in the same place, not 
in two davits, one for either board, as the steam-trawlers do. I have done 
this in order to try to fish with greater speed, as the trawls have larger 
meshes and, consequently, can stand it, and thereby catch more, particularly 
larger, fish. These experiments have succeeded beyond expectation. I have. 
employed trawls from England, whose head-rope is c. 50 foot long, and for 
these I used boards weighing 170 Danish pounds (85 Kilo) each; the latter 
were 4 feet 10 inches long and 2 feet 6 inches high. They have been 
manoeuvered from the Biological Station's steamship Sallingsund” (c. 100 
