45 
indicated H. P.), just as the small otter-seimes, and they fish exceedingly 
well — though of course not the smallest species of animals. Moreover, 
they offer the advantage that they do not go to pieces so easily as the 
seines on account of the stout threads in the meshes. I have no doubt 
that, with some practice, they may be employed on the greatest depths of 
the ocean. When the tow-rope, shortly after the heaving-out, is hauled up in 
the snatch-block astern, you may veer out as much rope as you want, with- 
out endangering the propeller. This cannot be done with the common 
steam-trawl with two lines; here the ship must constantly be clear to turn 
away from the lines, and this is very difficult on great depths, because you 
run the risk of getting the trawl foul. As I have before pointed out, we 
do not know any universal fishing apparatus which catches everything, and 
under all conditions. But the small otter-seines have already many excellent 
qualities, of which the most significant is their capacity for catching the 
smaller, but quick animals; moreover, they are exceedingly well calculated 
to be used from steam-launches, and the like, on lower water. When we 
have these seines and, besides, the said larger English otter-trawls, we can 
do much. They are absolutely unfit, however, to be used on a stony bot- 
tom; there we must employ fixed apparatus, traps, hooks, ete., if we want 
to catch many fish. When we use hooks, however, we must he careful 
that the hooks themselves do not lie on the bottom; for then echinoderms and 
crustacea generally take the bait, before the fishes can get at it. This may 
happen both on a soft and on a hard bottom. 

