THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 113 
of the air bladder by a long needle, they are placed in wells in the 
vessel and carried alive to market when a cargo has been obtained. 
According to Holdsworth (p. 148), there is no reasonable ground to 
believe that the catch on the coast of England has been diminished in 
numbers in consequence of the action of the long or trawl lines, the 
principal means of capture. On the contrary, the same ground has, 
year by year, furnished an increasing abundance in proportion to the 
number and size of the vessels employed, the catch being nearly if not 
entirely as great on any given number of hooks as it was many years 
ago. ; 
The capture of cod on the Norwegian banks is also made principally 
by the trawl-line, although the hand-line and the gill-net are also 
brought into play. 
For the purpose of ascertaining the present views of the Norwegian 
experts charged by the Government with the supervision of fishery 
operations, I addressed a letter to one of their number, Mr. Robert Col- 
lett, of Christiania, Norway, and his reply is herewith presented : 
“You ask me whether any question has axisen in Norway as to the 
greater destructiveness to fish or to the fishing-grounds in consequence 
of the use of the long-lines. Not atall. Iam quite sure the long-line 
is just used in the ‘great cod-fisheries,’ particularly in Lofoden Islands 
and along the coast of Aalesund, in the spawning season, and it would 
be a very bad fishery if the fishermen had nothing but hand-lines. 
“T never heard of any putrefaction of the grounds by the fishes 
breaking off from the hooks, and in the great depths, where the fishery © 
is very good, nothing of that kind would be felt. Inever heard of such 
a thing in Norway, and I could give you an example from the herring 
fisheries that proves there is nothing probably in this outery. 
“Tn the year 1854 great herring flocks were caught in a little fiord, 
Oxlofiord, « branch of Stonfoldenfiord, in Namdalen. By an accident 
once, the masses could not be taken up from the nets, and several 
thousand barrels died before they could be used. All these dead fishes 
were thrown into the water on a very small area in a narrow fiord and 
covered the bottom with a very thick layer. Notwithstanding, two 
years later the fiord was again full of fish, and thousands of barrels were 
caught just on the spot where the fishes had been thrown out. 
‘‘ As to the nature of the bait, if is partly fish, greatly invertebrates. 
On the great cod-fisheries in Lofoden, where they are catching the fish 
from January to March (the spawning season), they use herring. In 
Finmark they use Mallotus villosus, the best bait thatis known. (When 
this fish is in the fiord you cannot get cod with any other kind of bait.) 
‘Here they also use cephalopods (Ommastrephes). In the southern 
part of Norway, where they catch cod every season, they use Mytilus 
modiolus, Mytilus edulis, young Clupeaharengus, Arenicola piscatorum, and 
Palemon squilla. Ihave not heard of any other sort of bait. The baitis 
S. Mis, 90-—-8 
