§4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 
so is Iceland to be a fishery country; and the sea is to be the vast field 
where she can reap rich harvests even without sowing. 
It need hardly be pointed out how much the financial condition of 
- Iceland would be improved by such a development of the fisheries, and 
what indirect advantages would therefrom accrue to Denmark. Wehave 
in Denmark hundreds.of vessels which are well adapted to the Iceland 
bank fisheries, and which might in these fisheries make more money 
than by the carrying trade, in which they will be thrown more and more 
into the shade by steamships. 
2.—THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
These have never been a great source of revenue to the Icelanders. 
Herring have been caught, in stationary nets, for bait and for daily use 
in the household, but as far as known they have never been prepared 
as an article of trade. This is partly owing to the circumstance that a 
rational method of fishing, which is an essential condition of the devel- 
opment of fisheries into a profitable industry, is unknown in Iceland, 
and partly to the lack of capital. 
The attention of the Norwegians has meanwhile been drawn to the 
large schools of herring which visit the Iceland waters, and which, at 
certain seasons of the year, enter the fiords. During the last few years 
Norwegian fishermen have derived an income from a source which ought 
to have enriched Iceland. 
The first expeditions were sent out from Mandal in Norway to Seydis 
Fiord in Iceland, in 1868. 
The very imperfect method of fishing, however, in connection with a 
certain lack of energy shown by the persons participating in this expe- 
dition, caused the results to be less than they might otherwise have 
been. I shall briefly describe the method employed: 
By means of heavy nets with narrow meshes the schools of herring 
are surrounded when they go into the fiords in autumn. These nets are 
from 50 to 150 fathoms long, 14 to 17 fathoms deep, and have generally 
114 meshes to thefathom. Along the buoy-line, pieces of cork, each 8 
inches long, are fastened every yard; whilst along the foot-line there is 
a stone of 6 pounds’ weight to every fathom. Such a net is worked by 
abotit 16 men, 2 large boats in which the nets are piled up, and 5 to 6 
‘small boats, 2 of which are furnished with a small capstan. 
The foreman or “boss,” supplied with a sounding-line and a telescope, 
generally rows out into the fiord every afternoon, accompanied by the 
net-boat and 4 small boats. Whenever he has discovered a school of 
herring (either by means of the sounding-line, which is let down till 
within a few feet from the bottom, so that he can feel the school when it 
pushes against the line; or by means of the telescope; or, finally, by 
seeing the commotion caused near the surface by the herring) he gives 
a sign to the net-boat to indicate in what direction the net is to be set 
so as to inclose the herring. One of the boats with a capstan takes the 
