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boats, the heiglit of the vegetation, and so forth, but in tlieir broad features 

 they are very like each other in their general appearauce aud form. — If we 

 choose to maice the meshes larger, we eau get a very large apparatus, whkh 

 can be dragged with much greater speed and, consequently, tish much quicker 

 and catch larger animals; and we are not troubled with clay, mud, and those 

 smaller animals aud shells whieh we, otherwise, are too apt to get. For be it 

 remembered, ivith a small-meshed apparatus, hoivever large it may be, tve can 

 dray only very slowly. With great speed it will drive the water along in a wave 

 that washes away everything and frightens all quick animals, before they are 

 within reach; small meshes necessitate .slow sailing; with large meshes ive can 

 and must go on with a good speed. To keep the right speed is a very necessary 

 thing, which requires great practice and experience. Indeed, for every new 

 apparatus we must practise on low water, where the catch can easily be com- 

 pared to that of the older well-known apparatus. Every fisherman knows how 

 necessary it is to make a new eel-dragseine perfectly »fishable«, and I have 

 heard the same said of the large English trawls. It holds good, probably, of 

 any seine which is constructed with some fineness, and which is iutended 

 really to fish as well as possible. An ordinary dredge or a »scieutific« trawl, 

 on the other hånd, can be used by everyl^ody. They are extended by means 

 of heavy iron frames, aud are auything but »fine«. Yet, also liere there are 

 certain things to be observed ; the elaims to practice aud experience in fishiug- 

 technicalities, however, are reduced to a minimum; their fishing-capacitj^ is, 

 aceordiugly, not very great. Nevertheless, we must not forget that great ad- 

 vantages are conuected with them, on a ditficult bottom and for certain pur- 

 poses. A universal fishing-gear which is equally good under all conditions 

 and for any fishery, is not kuown and will never be knowu; the dredge and 

 the small scientitic trawls, however, have beeu employed only too much 

 as such. 



It will have beeu observed that the here described otter-seine approaches 

 very uear indeed to the new English Patent Otter-Trawl; only, it is dragged 

 iu a single line with a croir-foof, which must be the case with thepatter also, 

 if they were to be used on deep water. The greatest difference betweeu them, 

 irrespective of a great number of details in the construction of the net itself, 

 is, that the trawl has shorter arms than the seine, that its foot-rope is longer 

 than the head-rope, and that its bag is tapering towards a point, while the 

 bag of the seine is nearly of the same width throughout its whole length. I 

 shall not attempt to discuss whether these differences are advautages or draw- 

 backs, whether, in other words, we ought nither to make otter-trawls than ottef- 



