in two Hues, oue line for eaeh otter, aud is used ouly ou deptlis up to c. 100 

 fathoms; on greater depths it has been necessar}' to make other arrangements, 

 to which I sliall afterwards return. 



In all the years I have beeu the Director of the Dauish Biological Station 

 Ave have never had occasion to make deep-sea investigations. The Danisli 

 seas are shallow, and tlie fishing is generally limited to depths under 10 

 fathoms; there we can easily manage otherwise. Not till 1897, when the inve- 

 stigations were to be carried on in the Skager Rack as also, at the request of 

 the Xorwegian goA'ernment, in the deep Christiania Fjord, I must make arrange- 

 ments for going deeper — as deej) as 2 — 300 fathoms. My tirst thought was 

 then to use our ordinavji pel-dragseines for tilis fishery, in a similar way as that 

 in which our ti.shermen use tliem at several piaces, i. e. with a beam which 

 extends them- and which indeed gives them a great resemblauce to the beam- 

 trawl. (Cmp. Drechsel: Oversigt over vore Saltvandsfiskerier. 1890. PI. XV. A.) 

 The eel-dragseines are so common in Denmark ; every detail of their construc- 

 tion is so well known by our eel-seiners; the fishing capacity of the gear is 

 splendid, nay, quite notorious, each aud all characteristics which made me 

 choose this apparatus iustead of trjdug to make a beam-trawl. For there are 

 not many here, at any rate none that I know of, wiio are able to construct a 

 lieam- trawl correctly in all details; moreover, the fishermen of the Biologicai 

 Station are not practised iu the use of such a gear which, be it remembered, 

 is forbidden by the Danish law. 



Now, I do uot mean to say that it would be difficult to us (to my men 

 aud myself) to make a beam-trawl, which everybody who is not au expert iu 

 these matters, whould consider a very good beam-trawl; but it is a most diffi- 

 cult thing to teach oueself a quite new way of fishing, and it takes such a 

 long time to do so, particularly if the fishing is to be carried on further than 

 to the vcry first stages, that I thought I ought not to commence it withuut 

 cogent reasons, more particularly so, as I knew that the trnie which could 

 be employed for this purpose onboard a steamship was but very limited. 



Nothiug would have been easier, of course, than to order a suitable trawl 

 from England; but this would not by far have cleared the matter. For eveu 

 if such a trawl was in perfect order to commence with, and well calculated 

 for Enghsh conditions. it would very soon be changed by use, and if you do 

 not know by experience what is the matter, but have to make it out for youv- 

 self, you must be prepared to get a troublesome work, which will take you 

 long time. 



There are those who will say perhaps that these thiugs are trifles. If the 



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