114 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



always used fresh, and it is only in the case of extreme scarcity of fresh 

 bait that salted herring are used. 



"I remember now another fish which they use in the northwestern 

 parts, viz, the Ammodytes lancea. These as well as the young herring 

 are used whole, i. e., the whole little fish on a hook. 



"KOBEKT COLLETT. 



" Christiania, Norway, October 4, 1877." 



The winter fishing on George's Bank is entirely by hand-lines, the 

 weather being too inclement to permit the use of the 'trawl. At the 

 Lofoden Islands, 24 lines, each with 120 hooks, are usually fastened 

 together into one, thus carrying 2,880 hooks, although sometimes, in 

 particular localities, where the nature of the bottom requires it, a 

 much shorter length is employed. As in England, the short lines, 

 or snoods, are between 6 and 7 feet apart. Here, however, the lines 

 are shot in the afternoon, remaining down all night and taken up the 

 next morning. No line can be put down before noon, nor can it remain 

 down after midday. * 



Very often a glass ball, the size and shape of an egg, is fastened about 

 a foot from the hook, so as to buoy the bait a few feet from the bottom 

 and make it more easily observed by the fish. 



The usual yield of a long-line, with the number of hooks given above, 

 is 240 to 360 fish per day, and it is readily managed by two persons 

 while a hand-line, worked by one person, rarely takes more than 50 per 

 day, thus showing a marked difference in favor of the trawl. Very fre- 

 quently the long-line, instead of being kept down for a period of twelve 

 hours or longer, is overhauled much more frequently, especially in com- 

 paratively shoal water, where the line is no sooner fairly down than it 

 is again overhauled and rebaited. 



Various modifications as to the size and bait of trawl-lines are found 

 in other countries ; but what we have already stated will furnish a suf- 

 ficient idea of the general character and applications of this important 

 item of fishing apparatus. 



As already stated, very grave complaints have been made against the 

 long or trawl line in the United States, and legislation or mutual con- 

 sent invoked either for its entire abolishment or its restricted use under 

 certain specified conditions. 



The advantages of this method will readily be understood, as consist- 

 ing in the much greater efficiency and the much larger yield of fish taken 

 by the same force of men; as also in the tact of the more continued ex- 

 posure of the bait, in consequence of which fish that are deterred from 

 biting at the hand-line in its incessant motion, or only kept down dur- 

 ing the convenience of the fisherman, are more tempted by the bait on 

 the long-line, which is much more quiet and remains on the ground some- 

 times for a number of hours. 



* Baars, Dos Peches de la Norw6ge; Paris, 1867. II. B., Die Fischerei Industrie 

 Norw6ges, Bergen, 1873. 



