742 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The measured craft are registered at a tonnage calculated according 

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

 reports. Tlie herring fishery and other occupations have prevented me 

 from measiu'ing 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 Reef is growing more important every year. Market is 

 generally sought in the southern x)orts of jSTorway. 



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 on account of the inequality 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, IJie 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 i>roved a 

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

 low inice of mackerel in Stockholm, where this nutritious fish is not ap- 

 preciated, interfered with the efforts to sui^jdy 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 w^ell, 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 Mlsson, of Grebbestad, are of superior 

 quality, aud the best of all that arc made in the Lan. 



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



The losses, also, in this fishery have been unusually hea^'y, and con- 

 tributions have been leviedto the amount of 0.0 per cent, 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 Engiish register tous, "accurate tonnage," outside measm'ement. 



