742 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The measured craft are registered at a tounage calculated according 

 to Eule II.* All others have been treated as stated in my previous 

 reports. The herring fishery and other occupations have prevented me 

 from measuring all of them. Twenty-four new craft have this year been 

 added to the fishing fleet. The summer fishery in larger fishing smacks 

 on the Jutland Eeef is growing more important every year. Market is 

 generally sought in the southern ports of Norway. 



The Fishermen's Association, besides having suffered from the loss of 

 the above craft, met with heavier losses than ever before through the 

 destruction of apparatus in the Skrejd and Storreggen fisheries. The 

 assessment levied to meet these losses was, for the banking vessels, 8.4 

 per cent, of their insured value. 



In consequence of this, and ou account of the inequahty in risk, it 

 was resolved at a meeting of the Insurance Association, January 21, 

 that a special section of the association be formed that will grant insur- 

 ance only for total loss, and not undertake to indemnify for damages to 

 vessels or for loss of apparatus. 



This is the final aim of the association toward which it now seems to 

 have approached one step nearer. When the association was formed, 

 eight years ago, the loss of one gang of trawl-lines or of one anchor 

 would have paralyzed the whole boat's crew. This is now no more the 

 case in any degree worth mentioning. 



B.— THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



The supply of fish was almost equal to that of the previous year. 

 Price and demand also were about the same. 



Mackerel was sent to Stockholm in ice, but this undertaking proved a 

 financial failure. The railroad freight for the heavy ice-boxes, and the 

 low price of mackerel in Stockhohn, where this nutritious fish is not ap- 

 preciated, interfered with the efforts to supply the capital with this sea- 

 fish in a fresh condition in summer time. It will remain a mere object 

 of desire, until the railroad administration will furnish American refrig- 

 erator-cars. It paid well, however, to ship ice-packed mackerel to 

 Christiania, and this undertaking met with a cheerful approval from the 

 Norwegians. 



The preserving of mackerel in oil and its marinating are still prac- 

 ticed. The products of Edward Nilsson, of Grebbestad, are of superior 

 quality, and the best of all that are made in the Lan. 



The " bankers" from Oroust still use mackerel-nets for catching bait. 



The losses, also, in this fishery have been unusually heavy, and con- 

 tributions have been leviedto the amount of 6.6 per ceut. of the insured 

 value. 



The hook-and-line ("dorj") fishing is gradually being abandoned, and 

 during the last three years has given insignificant returns for the labor. 



* In English regLster tons, "accurate tonnage," outside measurement. 



