THE GILL-NET COD FISHERY. 227 



caught on one occasion. This seemed to indicate that nets of sufficient strength might be used 

 to good advantage, at least oo some of the smoother fishing grounds along the coast. 



These preliminary trials, therefore, having demonstrated that nets could be employed advan- 

 tageously in the American cod fisheries, Professor Baird availed himself of the first opportunity 

 that offered for obtaining definite knowledge of the methods of netting cod in Norway, with the 

 intention of disseminating this information among American cod fishermen. 



The opening of the International Fishery Exhibition at Berlin, Germany, in the spring of 1880, 

 presented a favorable opportunity for accomplishing this purpose. Professor Baird having 

 appointed me as one of the commission to attend the exhibition on the staff of Prof. G. Brown 

 Goode, desired that a careful study should be made of the foreign methods of the deep-sea 

 fisheries as represented at the exhibition. The method of capturing cod with gill-nets, as prac- 

 ticed by the Norwegian fishermen, was mentioned as a subject which should receive especial con- 

 sideration, and it was suggested that it might even be desirable to visit Norway, so that the prac- 

 tical operation of this fishery could be observed. 



It was the original intention of Professor Baird that a report of the observations made at the 

 Berlin exhibition should be published as soon after the return of the commissioners as possible, 

 but circumstances delayed its preparation. 



The use of gill-nets in the cod fisheries at Ipswich Bay during the winter of 1880-'81 resulted in . 

 such complete success that there is probability that they may be, at some future time, introduced 

 into the bank fisheries, as well as those along the coast. 



2. CONSTRUCTION AND RIG OF THE NETS. 



NORWEGIAN METHODS. The nets used in the Norwegian cod fisheries are usually made of 

 hemp twine, of two, three, or four threads, but occasionally of flax or cotton. The three-layed 

 hemp twine, which is the most common size, weighs a pound to 400 or 420 fathoms. It is made 

 chiefly on spinning wheels by the fishermen's families, and the nets are constructed almost exclu- 

 sively by the fishermen and their wives and children. Some of the hemp twine, however, is 

 furnished by the factories of Norway and Great Britain, which also supply all of the cotton and 

 linen twine. 



The size of the mesh varies somewhat, according to the locality where the nets are to be used, 

 as it is necessary to make the mesh correspond to the size of the fish that frequent different parts 

 of the coast, or make their appearance at different seasons. The smallest mesh is about 5f inches 

 (2-f s inches square) and the largest 8 inches (4 inches square). Those exhibited at Berlin were 7 

 and S inch mesh. 



The length of the nets varies from 10 to 20 fathoms, the average length of those used at the 

 Lofoten Islands being 15| fathoms, when hung, and they are from twenty-five to sixty meshes deep. 

 Nets about thirty meshes deep are generally used, while those of sixty meshes are employed only 

 where there is little or no current. The nets are hung both to single and double lines, and these 

 vary somewhat in size. Those exhibited were hung to double lines, each being ^ of an inch in 

 circumference, while Mr. Wallem says that 2-inch rope when single, and 1 inch rope when double, 

 is the size commonly used at the Lofoten Islands. Some of the nets are hung to lines only at the 

 top and bottom, having none across the ends, while others have them on the ends as elsewhere. 

 This last method is said to have been recently introduced, and is considered an improvement when 

 the line is a little short, so that the net will be a trifle slack or baggy. About one-third of the net 

 is taken up in hanging; that is, if a net is 30 fathoms loug, stretched out, before it is hung, it will 



