THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 113 



of the air bladder by a long needle, they are placed in wells in the 

 vessel and carried alive to market when a cargo has been obtained. 



According to Holdsworth (p. 148), there is no reasonable gronnd to 

 believe that the catch on the coast of England has been diminished in 

 nnmbers in consequence of the action of the long or trawl lines, the 

 principal means of capture. On the contrary, the same ground has, 

 year by year, furnished an increasing abundance in proportion to the 

 number and size of the vessels employed, the catch being nearly if not 

 entirely as great on any given number of hooks as it was many years 

 ago. 



The capture of cod on the Norwegian banks is also made principally 

 by the trawl-line, although the hand line and the gill-net are also 

 brought into play. 



For the purpose of ascertaining the present views of the Norwegian 

 experts charged by the Government with the supervision of fishery 

 operations, I addressed a letter to one of their number, Mr. Eobert Col- 

 lett, of Christiania, Norway, and his reply is herewith presented : 



"You ask me whether any question has arisen in Norway as to the 

 greater destructiveness to fish or to the fishing-grounds in consequence 

 of the use of the long-lines. Not at all. I am quite sure the long-liue 

 is just used in the l great cod-fisheries,' particularly in Lofoden Islands 

 and along the coast of Aalesund, in the spawning season, and it would 

 be a very bad fishery if the fishermen had nothing but hand-lines. 



"I never heard of any putrefaction of the grounds by the fishes 

 breaking off from the hooks, and in the great depths, where the fishery 

 is very good, nothing of that kind would be felt. I never heard of such 

 a thing in Norway, and I could give you an example from the herring 

 fisheries that proves there is nothing probably in this outcry. 



"In the year 1834 great herring flocks were caught in a little fiord, 

 Oxlofiord, a branch of Stonfoldeufiord, in Namdalen. By an accident 

 once, the masses could not be taken up 'from the nets, and several 

 thousand barrels died before they could be used. All these dead fishes 

 were thrown into the water on a very small area in a narrow fiord and 

 covered the bottom with a very thick layer. Notwithstanding, two 

 years later the fiord was again full of fish, and thousands of barrels were 

 caught just on the spot where the fishes had been thrown out. 



"As to the nature of the bait, it is partly fish, greatly invertebrates. 

 On the great cod -fisheries in Lofoden, where they are catching the fish 

 from January to March (the spawning season), they use herring. In 

 Fiumark they use Mallotus villosus, the best bait that is known. (When* 

 this fish is in the fiord you cannot get cod with any other kind of bait.) 



" Here they also use cephalopods (Ommastrephes). In the southern 



part of Norway, where they catch cod every season, they use Mytilus 



modiolus, Mytilus edulis, young Clupea harengus, Arenicola piscatorum , and 



Palamwn squ ilia. I have not heard of any other sort of bait. The bait is 



S. Mis. 90™S 



