() 



dovible-trawl, and it was loug cousidered a greal iinpruvemeut oii tlie ordiDaiy 

 single beam- trawl, whicli may sometimes fall on the wrong side, and is then 

 incapa))le of fishiug an_ytliiug. It is a draw back, however, to the double trawl 

 that its fishiug opening generally eau be only half the size (height) of that of 

 a beam-trawl of the same width, and that its moutli during the dragging in 



is more dilated, so that the water will rush 

 through it and spoil the finer organisms. More- 

 over, compared to the single beam- trawl, it 

 is said to be objectionable on hard bottom, 

 because its »fishing-ropes«, the ropes which 

 scrape along the bottom, are so tight that they 

 ofteu take hold suddenly and burst. When we 

 see, finally, that Z. L. Tarme); North-Ameriea's 

 most experienced explorer of the dee))-sea, in 

 his recent descriptiou of the apparatus used 

 onboard the »Albatros« (Bull. of the United 

 States Fish Commission, vol. XVI. 1896, p. 357) 

 says that the investigator always, with few ex- 

 ceptions, will be able to make the single beam- 

 trawi (fig. 2) fall to the bottoni in the right way, 

 even on tlie greatest depths, the double trawl 

 (the Blake trawl, Agassiz' trawl), presumedly, 

 Avill scarcely be used in future, except when, from 

 various reasons, it is impossible to employ any 

 other fishing-gear. It must be granted that it 

 lias l)een of great service to science; mauy un- 

 known animals have been caught bj' it; but it 

 is a fishiug-apparatus which differs much from 

 the traditional one, i. e. from the trawl used 

 by the fishermen in theJv daiiy work. We must remember also that a fishiug- 

 apparatus in such general use as the English beam-trawl represents the expe- 

 rience acquired by many people through long times and witli buge labour; 

 and we should not without cogent reasons give up a thing which has been 

 approved by experience. Au Englishman would hardly have ventured to do 

 so, and it is scarcely accideutal tliat it was an American who did; for in Ame- 

 rica trawling is not kuown in professional fisliery. 



In America, however, where scientific deep-sea iuvestigations are carried 

 on regularly, they have, as we learn from the report (18!t6), partly returned to 



l'ig. 1. A single team-trawl (Aftrr 



Tiiinin-.) — Tlu' leiigth ol' llie licam is 



11 Ensl. fect. 



Å 



