REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXXVII 



coast were received by the Boston net factories inquiring about the cod 

 gill-nets. AUnsiou has been made to the diflBculty of obtaining bait 

 for the shore lisheries, its cost, &c. As an instance of this, the average 

 bait bill of a vessel in the Gloucester shore fleet for the month of De- 

 cember, 1880, may be stated at $150, and the bait bill of the schooner 

 Phantom for fifteen days was $380. This, added to the hiss of time in 

 seeking bait (often one-third), was a serious drawback. But the bait 

 question is a still more important one to the bank fishermen, who have 

 generally been obliged to seek it in the ports of the British Provinces. 

 Great stress has been laid by the inhabitants of the provinces on the 

 importance of this privilege to our fishermen. 



Gill-nets have been used in the Norwegian cod fisheries for nearly 

 two hundred years, and with good success. M. Friele, in an account 

 of the fisheries of Norway, in 1877, says they are "quite indispensable 

 when the cod does not bite," while, according to Mr. Hermann Baars, 

 Die Fischerci Industrie Norivegens, Bergen, 1873, ''the fatter the fish the 

 IcFS it is attracted by the bait, and during spawning season 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. These nets are held 

 upright in the water by means of tioats 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 Loflbden Islands." The importance of the use of gill-nets in the 

 Norwegian cod-fisheries is shown in the following extracts from the 

 official report of the superintendent, Niels Juel (first lieutenant in the 

 navy), for 1878, givicg the statistics, &c., of the Loflbden Island fish- 

 eries : 



"The percentage of fishermen using diflerent apparatus was as fol- 

 lows: 58 per cent, used nets; 32 per cent, used lines; 10 per cent, used 

 deep-bait. There was an increase from last year of 2,542 in the number 

 of net fishermen. There was an average of 3,725 boats employed, of 

 which 2,154 boats, carrying 13,1G8 men, were engaged in fishing with 

 gill-nets. The total catch for 1878 was 24,GG0,000 cod in number, of 

 which upwards of 14,000,000 of the largest were caught with nets." 



The net-fishing has since increased, according to Mr. Hermann Baars, 

 who says: "In 1879 the following enumeration was made: 2,532 boats, 

 with crews numbering 14,322 men, fitted out for the net-fishery." He 

 further says that "usually the boats fishing with nets obtain the great- 

 est net receipts, since these often sell 10,000 to 12,000 fish, 10 to 12 

 barrels of oil, and 10 barrels of roe, valued at 2,500 marks ($595.24), and 

 at least 400 marks ($95.24) to each man. A net yield of 350 marks a 

 head is considered by the trawl-line fishermen very satisfactory." These 

 remarkable results are obtained by fishing in open boats in the dead of 

 winter north of the arctic circle. What may we not hope for under 

 more favorable circumstances ? Of this Mr. Baars says : " But it nnist 

 be remembered that the stormy weather, which often lasts for weeks at 



