28 



is kept out from land by meaus of a pole^ 32 — 34 feet long, while people 

 OU land draw tlie seine along. Strange to say, tliis way of fishiog seems 

 quite to have fallen into disuse nowadays; perhaps it ought to be tried again. 

 The fishing, of course, must be carried ou in the moonless uights, with a 

 current from the south. It would, possibly, be very difficult to set the traps 

 OU tliese shores, but I should think almost that it would pay. 



Finally, there is the western shore of Jufland. Most likely it will be 

 almost impossible to make use of traps on the open shores; but some 

 attempts have proved that there is a migration of eels. It is said that the 

 eels run from the south to the north. The traps must be set in shelter of 

 the saud-banks, iu very favourable piaces, and there are not mauy such. 

 Farther south, moreover, the tides impede this fishery on lower water. — In 

 Ringhjøhing Fjord there has of late years grown up a considerable fishery 

 which, according to the statement of Mr. I. Iversen, the Keeper of the Fish- 

 eries, has some 400 — ^500 traps. — In Nissum Fjord, according to the 

 statistics, the whole of the eel-fishcry iu 1898 was valued at c. 600 Kroner. 

 It is thus without any greater importance. 



It would seem strange to leave this matter, without meutiouing the 

 pecuniary value of the eel-trap fishery iu Denmark. But, iudeed, I should 

 prefer not to enter upou this question, as it is not very accurately kuowu 

 how much we fish. Fishery statistics is iu itself a difficult subject, but this 

 question is the most difficult of all; for here there is most mysteriousuess. 

 As the fish that are caught, are ofteu not lauded in Denmark at all, but are 

 sailed to Germany alive, the system of mysteriousuess can be carried through 

 pretty well. Something, however, oozes out uow and then, Init whether it 

 be the naked truth, indeed, is uot known. The official statistics, moreover, does 

 not state the income from this fishery separately; it is summed up together 

 with the eel-fishery with hooks and by speariug. Nevertheless, the average 

 value of these fisheries for the j^ears since 1890, according to the statistics, 

 amounts to only c. 600,000 Kroner for the whole country, excepting the Lim- 

 fjord and EingJcjøbing Fjord. As mentioned in the very statistics, this sum 

 is evidently too small. Iu the Limfjord, where the number of traps has 

 beeu constantly increasing duriiig these years, the profit ou the trap fishery 

 alone, iu 1890, is stated to be 9,845 Kroner. But since then it has riseu 

 pretty evenly to c. 100,000 Kroner, in 1898. For Ringhjøhing Fjord the 

 total profit on the whole eel-fishery has risen from 11,267 Kr., in 1895, to 

 more thau 100,000 Kr., in 1900. Only a few years ago they have learnt 

 there to turn the rich eel-fishery to profit iu the right way. 



