12 



to manage that I have been ublo to use it from a steam launch (32 feet long) 

 on a depth of 30 — 50 fathoms; and had not a steam-winch been wanting for 

 heaving-in tlie wire-ropes, a powerful steam-lauuch would be able to manæuvre 

 it, and use it with protit, on a depth of several hundred fathoms. 



With such an upparatus, an eel drag-seine witli hoarils, I have this sum- 

 mer made many hanls on depths botwecn 1 fathom and 300 fathoms. After 

 the first diflieulties in tinding the suitable speed, boards of suitable size and 

 weight, crow-foot of suitable length, etc, had been overcome, the gear has 

 worked exeellently. I have, in 1897, employed it from no less than 7 various 

 steamers of very different sizes, as also from a saihug-vessel, on very soft as 

 well as on liai'd, partly stony bottom in the Cattegat, the Skager Rack, and in 

 several Scandiuavian fjords, for instance the Christiania Fjord, and it ha.s never 

 been quite torn to pieces. 



In the following the details of this tishing-gear will be more elosely de- 

 scribed; first, however, I must make a liistorical observation. — 



Besides the henni-trawls winch have been used on the various deep-sea 

 expeditions, the size of which (the length of the Ijeam) was, for instance, on 

 »Vøringen« 15 feet, on tlic »Albafross« 11 feet (Ta?2«er beam-trawl). tlie »BlaJcc^ 

 10 feet, the »Fola'-i- c. 10 feet, etc, the Norwegian north-Atlantic expcditiou in 

 »Vøringen« has also made use of a small ofier-tratvl, and just in the same 

 way as I employed the eel drag seine, i. e. ivith a croiv fooi.*) Tiiis otter-trawl, 

 however, was but very little used in »Vøringen«, not because it could not 

 catch anything, but because it so often became fuul when it was placed in 

 the water. Twice, however, the}^ succeeded iu getting it out clear, and both 

 times the result was excellent, a great number of tish being cauglit. The gear 

 is meutioned only very brietly iu the report, and a picture of it is given, but 

 in such a way that we cannot form any clear conception of its real form. It 

 is no easy task to picture and describe seines and trawls accurately — I grant 

 that — but wo do not get over the difficulties by pretending not to see them. 



*) 1 .Scotland tho}' havo uii various oi/casions made use ol' larger beaiu trawls iu 

 fisheries for practical scientiflc purposes, ou a depth of as mauyassouie hundred fathoms. 

 As far as I rememl)er, the beams were e. 20 — 30 fatlioms lonsi-; but on tho greater e.\pe- 

 ditions they have always been mueli smaller. — The lisbing-gear from the Frenrh expe- 

 ditions in the »Travailleur' and the »Talisman«, Avhieh have caught an unusually large 

 numl>er of tish, is mentioned in »Annalos hydrographiqucs", 2. Ser. T. V. 1883, pp. 24 — 25 

 and p. 281, as also loe. cit. 2. Ser. T. IV. 1882, pp. 385—398, partieularly p. 389. It .seems as if 

 they have finst (in the »Travailleur«) made use of a large trawl with a lieaiu 7 meters 

 long and thcn afterwards (in the »Talisman«) changed this for a »Blake-trawl« ol 2 — 3 me 

 ters. — The reason tor this is not stated. 



