XLII.-THE RESULTS OF THE LONDOiN FISHERIES EXHIBITION 

 m THEIR PRACTICAL VALUE FOR GERMANY.* 



By Dr. Berthold Benecke, 

 Professor in the University of Konigsberg. 



lu consequence of tbe successful Fishery Exposition arranged four 

 years ago in Berlin by the German Fishery Association, public interest 

 in this subject began to be awakeued also in England, which had not 

 been well represented at the Berlin Exposition. After small exhibitions 

 had been held in JSTorwich in 18S1, and in Edinburgh in 1882, a most im- 

 posing International Fisheries Exhibition was, in May, 1883, opened in 

 London by His Koyal Highness the Prince of Wales. This exhibition 

 formed the principal object of interest to visitors to London for half a 

 year, was visited by 2,500,000 persons, produced a perfect flood of ich- 

 thyological literature, and directed the attention of the great public in 

 the most energetic manner to the importance of the fishing industries. 



Acknowledging that in the sea-fisheries, to which the London Exhi- 

 bition was principally devoted, we could in no wise compete with other 

 nations, Germany was not represented by an exhibit ; but by the aid 

 of the ministry of agriculture the German Fishery Association was en- 

 abled to send a number of reporters to London, in order to study the 

 exhibition and examine what might be of practical value for Germany. 



The sea-fisheries. — The principal point of attraction, and the sub- 

 ject best represented, was, of course, the great sea-fisheries, an industry 

 yielding in the United States an annual income of 450,000,000 marks 

 [$107,100,000], in England of 240,000,000 marks [$57,120,000], in France 

 80,000,000 [$19,040,000], and in Norway 25,000,000 [$5,950,000]. Un- 

 fortunately the results of our German sea-fisheries are very insignificant 

 when compared with these figures, although a sea rich in fish — the North 

 Sea — washes a long stretch of our coast, and although we are not much 

 farther from the rich fishing-grounds than most other nations (and even 

 nearer than some) which annually catch there several million marks' 

 worth of fish. 



The beam-trawl. — The most important fishing apparatus for flat- 

 fish and round-fish, which furnishes the greater portion of the 140,000 

 tons of fish annually consumed in London, is the beam-trawl, a net which 



* *' Vortrag iiber die fur Deittschland praktisch verwertliljartn Ergebnisse der Londoner 

 Fischerei-Ausstelhing." From Circular No. 3, 1884, of the Germau Fishery Associa- 

 tion, Berlin, Ajwil 4, 1884. Translated from the Germau by Herman Jacobson. 



[1] 1185 



H. Mis. 68 75 



