11 



aii ordiiiary otter-trawl. Ry certain wintls it couli.l Ije dragged on low water 

 bj' a small sailing-vessel of 4—5 tons, and it fished a grcat number oi' fisli, 

 aniong otlicrs niany cels, wliioli are considered tlie most dit'licnlt Hsh to catcli. 

 Two oftey-traais, made in this country for tliese very two boards, proved, 

 on the other hånd, to be failures, whether now this was owing to mistakes 

 made by the constructors (one of them liad been to England and was said to 

 understand the art very well iudeed), or the reason was that we did not under- 

 stand how to use them. The drag-seine, however, fished well. It was dragged 



Fig. 4. Salling- Vessel wilh otU'r drag-seine, belonging lo tlie Biologicai Slaliou. 



in two lines, one for eithcr »otter«; but 1 soon discovered that it was as well 

 (o drag it in a crow-foot, from the vertex of whieh only one line passed on- 

 ijoard the boat. (f 'mp. fig. 4.) We were now able, by only making this line long 

 enough, to drag with the seiue on anij depth, if we had only sufficient power 

 to drag it. 



A problem on whieh I had been poudering for years — how to employ 

 an eel-seine from a steamer on water of greater depth — was thus solved, and 

 we have got a fishing-apparatus whieh is emiueuth' calculated to catch the 

 livelier animals on deep water. Moreover the gear has small meshes and is 

 therefore able also to catch smaller fish. With ordinary, suitable speed it is 

 extended to about 12 — 16 feet, and it is thus at least as large as the usual trawls 

 employed by the greatest vessels for deep-sea investigations ; j'et it is so easy 



