EMDEN JOINT-STOCK HEEKING-FISHERY ASSOCIATION. 757 



directors soon made the startling discovery that an ominous mistake 

 had been made in the management of the nets. These represent a capital 

 of about 83,750 per vessel, or $45,000 for 12 vessels— or rather $41,250 

 for 11, as, unfortunately, one vessel had been lost in 1875. As there 

 are otherwise no very great expenses in carrying on herring-fisheries, 

 the chief point coming into consideration is tlie question of the nets. 



The nets were formerly knit by women and girls, and the material 

 employed also for the herring-nets was hemp. This material has now- 

 been almost universally superseded by cotton, which is cheaper and 

 more pliable ; and the nets are now made by machinery. In Holland 

 and Great Britain, and also to a great extent in France, the cotton nets 

 are made at least as strong as the former hemp nets by repeated tan- 

 ning with catechu, alternating with a soaking in linseed-oil. This soak- 

 ing requires considerable attention in order not to break the nets, of 

 which there is danger if the drying, which must follow the soaking in 

 linseed-oil (the superflous oil is removed by pressing the nets between, 

 rollers), is not done evenly. It was thought that this could be avoided 

 by not soaking the nets in oil ; all the more, as in 1872 several French 

 fishing associations had adopted this method, and, as reported, with 

 satisfactory results. This is not impossible, as the circumstances in 

 France are somewhat different. The French herringfisheries are nearly 

 all coast fisheries in the channel ; the voyages are shorter and the nets 

 are more frequently exchanged. Other French reports, however, say 

 that the method of tanning and oiling is to be preferred in spite of the 

 greater expense. The fishermen of the Emden association say they 

 have repeatedly warned the members not to omit the soaking in oil, but 

 in vain. When the present director, in 1875, accompanied the " loggers" 

 on their first voyage in a clipper he had similar misgivings, and his long 

 experience as a sea-captain enabled him to understand the w^hole mat- 

 ter when, during this voyage, the fishermen told him their views regard- 

 ing the soaking of the nets; but during the fishing season nothing could 

 be done, and when the sea was not very rough the evil consequences of 

 omitting the soaking were not seen. Even the second voyage gave no 

 indication of the terrible failures which were to follow so soon ; but the 

 third and fourth voyages, in 1875, exhibited an almojit uninterrupted 

 series of losses, the nets being either partially or totally broken, so that 

 but very few fish were caught. This is certain, that only the right de- 

 gree of soaking will give to the nets that elasticity and power of resist- 

 ance which is required for long voyages, such as the Emden herring- 

 fisheries involve. As the tanning makes the nets loose they will, when 

 piled up high in the narrow hold of the vessel, be compressed into a 

 compact mass by their own weight. A great degree of warmth is devel- 

 oped, actually increasing to heat, especially when the nets come wet 

 from the water, and cannot be aired on account of continued rain-storms ; 

 and, as in wet hay, a burning process does finally take place. The 

 association even now owns nets which are five and six years old, and 



