AN ACCOUNT OF THE FISHERIES OF NORWAY IN 1877. 711 



o. The hand-line. — The hand-line is the least complicated of all the 

 apparatus. It can be used everywhere as soon as the fish appears and 

 establishes itself on the banks. Herring, when procurable, is used for 

 bait ; otherwise, simply roe. The beat of all baits, however, is the cap- 

 elan. In the Sondmore they fish also with the line, and often without 

 bait, by putting above the hooks a little tin fish, intended to attract the 

 cod, which they catch, when it tries to bite, by raising and lowering the 

 hook. 



Fishing with the simple line is gradually disappearing before the im- 

 proved methods, but it is carried on in the following manner : The boats, 

 manned in the Loffoden Islands by from three to five men, in the Sond- 

 more by about eight, betake themselves to the oi)en sea, provided that 

 the weather offers no obstacle, and begin by seeking the fish upon the 

 banks at a depth of 30 to 40 fathoms, and at distances of six miles or 

 more, sometimes in the Sondmore of 20 to 25 miles. The product of 

 this fishing is very variable, the fish not always biting even when on 

 the banks. The fatter it is the less likely it is to bite; and experience 

 has shown that line-fishing is especially productive in years when the 

 fish is thin and toward the end of the season. In the Loffoden Isles the 

 daily catch of a boat with five men is estimated at 250 fish, but it some- 

 times amounts to 500, which is all that the boat will ordinarily hold. 

 In the Sondmore, where the boats are manned by eight men, the 

 average daily catch is rated at from 180 to 250 fish, but it sometimes 

 attains to 500. 



h. The palancre or trmdline. — The palancre or trawl-line is an im- 



fiue lines of hemp or cottoa, 16 or 20 inches long, and G or d feet ai^art. The bait used 

 is the same as for the hand-lines. 



According to the number of the crew and the local circumstances, the trawls are 

 set in lengths of 500 to 2,400 hooks, and usually in the afternoon. When the fish swim 

 at some distance above the bottom, the trawls are kept at the proper height by means 

 of glass floats. The trawls are taken up the next morning. 



When the fish are sufficiently near the coast to make it possible to reach the trawls 

 quickly, they are sometimes taken up on the same day. The yield of the trawl varies. 

 On the average, however, it may be estimated at 15 or 20 fish to the line of 120 hooks. 



The fatter the fish the less it is attracted by the bait ; and during the spawning sea- 

 sou it scarcely ever takes the hook at all. For this reason the well-to-do fisherman is 

 usually provided with nets as well as trawls. 



The vessels fitted out for the use of the gill-nets generally carry sixty or seventy of 

 these, of a length varying from ten to twenty fathoms, and twenty-five to sixty meshes 

 wide, which are from three to three and a half inches between the knots. These nets 

 are held upright in the water by means of floats of hollow glass, the invention of 

 merchant Christopher Faye, of Bergen. Sometimes, however, wood or cork is used. 

 The glass floats are almost exclusively in use in all the Loffoden Islands, From sixteen 

 to twenty nets are generally fastened together and set in the sea in the afternoon in one 

 length, care being taken to avoid their being mixed up with the trawls and hand-lines. 

 When the weather permits the whole of these are taken up the next morning. A yield 

 of four or five hundred cod is considered satisfactory. If it exceeds this to the num- 

 ber of six to eight hundred fish, the fisherman is obliged to allow a portion of the 

 nets to remain undisturbed until afternoon, as the boats will seldom carry the larger 

 number with the nets and equipment (p. 10). — Tii.vnslator, 



