ANDEKSSEN, FISHERY EXHIBITION, PHILADELPHIA, 1876. 61 



now the process is quick and safe. The greatest drawback was this, 

 that the seine must reach the bottom, and wherever the water was too 

 deep for doing this it could not be used. The sack-nets, used with us 

 for catching pollock, or the net invented by Mr. Kildal, in Nordland, for 

 catching codfish, are only incomjflete realizations of the above-mentioned 

 idea, and cannot compete in practical usefulness with the purse-seine, 

 whose use is not confined to certain localities, as the sack-net, nor to 

 certain portions of the bottom, like Kildal's net, but which can be used 

 everywhere unless hindered by strong waves or currents. Purse-seines 

 would prove extremely useful in our country, where schools of herring 

 often keep in the middle of the fiords, where they cannot be reached by 

 common nets, or in any other way except occasionally by a floating net. 



Convinced of the incalculable profit which would accrue to our country 

 from a more general use of the purse-seine, I have everywhere recom- 

 mended its introduction ; and my efforts in this direction seem to be re- 

 warded, as Fagerheim's mechanical net factory near Bergen has given 

 serious attention to the matter, and has already received several orders 

 for purse-seines. But besides carefully manufactured seines on the 

 American plan, and light boats, some practice will be necessary before 

 the introduction of the purse-seines will yield full results. After having 

 in Boston procured models of purse-seines and boats, which are to serve 

 as guides to our manufacturers, I still desire that some American purse- 

 seine fishermen could be engaged to instruct our fishermen in the use of 

 these seines, so that our experiments might not prove failures, but lead 

 to a speedy adoption of these seines. I may say here that negotiations 

 have been opened with an American fisherman, which, so far, however, 

 have not led to any definite results. 



I have been somewhat lengthy in my description of the purse-seine, 

 bat the great importance of having it introduced with us will serve as 

 an excuse. It seems strange that this seine, which has been in use in 

 America for almost twenty years, and which in fact has become the prin- 

 cipal American fishing implement, has not yet been introduced in the 

 Scandinavian countries, from which so many good sailors have emigrated 

 to America, and have there become experienced fishermen ; but, as far as 

 I can ascertain, it is a fact that this seine has not been introduced in a 

 single European country, and is only known by name. 



In bays and along the coasts the Americans very frequently use an- 

 other somewhat expensive fishing implement, which is unknown with us, 

 the so-called "pound-net," a sort of self-acting trap, something like our 

 self-acting salmon-traps, only considerably larger, with which all kinds 

 of fish are caught. As this net seems peculiarly adapted to the Ameri- 

 can coasts, with their great wealth of fish, and on account of its high 

 price (about $400) does not seem suited to our circumstances, I will not 

 give any farther description of this very ingenious contrivance. 



The well-known trawl-net and floating net of the Dutch, French, and 

 English is, as far as I could ascertain, not used in America, where the 



