_ 9 _ APPENDIX E; HEINCKE 



cited above of Ehrenbaiim and Strodtman and in Appendix E of the Proceedings of 

 Committee B, Amsterdam, December 1903 ^ 



The bag of the net is constructed either of fine-canvas, canvas, so-called 'iron'-yarn, 

 or silk gauze No 1 , and is about 3 m. long with a beaker or bucket at the end. This 

 is made fast to a quadrilateral frame of gas-tubing ca. 18 mm. in diameter. On the under 

 side of the frame, there is a zinced iron plate of 72 x 72 cm. surface, movable on hinges, 

 which can be fixed by iron bars at an oblique angle of 125° inclining downwards and 

 forwards — the so-called 'shearing-board'. The whole net is connected with a wire warp 

 of 7 to 8 mm. thick, by means of 6 wire bridles of the same thickness. The net is let 

 down perpendicularly to the required depth, and the boat going quite slowly or even 

 drifting, it fishes ^steadily almost horizontally at the fixed depth, as it tends to go down- 

 wards from the strain on the rope and the resistance of the water pressing on the shearing- 

 board. This net has proved to be very useful for the capture of the larvae and young 

 forms of the food-fishes, which occur usually in greater numbers in deeper layers of the 

 water than in the upper, but it is also very useful for the qualitative fishing of eggs in 

 deeper water. The net has already had a wider distribution and is at present being used 

 in neighbouring countries. 



2. The fishing for pelagic young fish. 



For these, we chiefly employ two different kinds of nets , in addition to the otter 

 young-fish net, with which tolerably large, fully-formed young fish of several centimeters 

 long are occasionally caught. 



Firstly, the so-called Hjort's ring-net, constructed from the model of the net used 

 by Dr. Hjort for pelagic young fish. A conical net of hemp of about b^U-ra. long with a 

 detachable bu-cket at the end, is fastened to a round ring of zinced gas-tubing 3Va cm. 

 thick with a diameter of 2-60 m. The net is connected to a 7 mm. strong steel warp by 

 means of 3 bridles each 4 m. long, and is towed very slowly or simply when drifting, 

 through the water. To keep the heavy ring near the surface or above a certain depth, a 

 skin or leather buoy is made fast to it with a sufficiently long line. This ring-net of 

 Hjort's fishes excellently the smaller pelagic young fishes, at various depths, but does not 

 stand rapid towing and can therefore catch relatively few fish — the quick swimming young 

 fish, as herring and mackerel etc., almost not at all. Our second pelagic young-fish net 

 is the so-called Heligoland three otter-boards net which we have constructed for 

 our own special purposes. It is an apparatus of the largest dimensions. The net is conical 

 in shape, made of hemp, with 600 meshes round, 30 m. along the side, and so made 

 that the size of the mesh decreases gradually through 20 stages from 8 cm. in front to 

 a/é cm. behind; then follows a cylindrical sack of 4 m. in length with 600 meshes, V2 cm. 

 wide, in the round. The sack can be closed behind. The opening of the net is hung to a 

 hemp rope of ca. 2-7 cm. thick and is 45 m. in circumference. Three pairs of eyes or loops 

 are made in the hemp rope at distances of 14 m. apart, to which the 3 otter-boards are 

 attached by means of shackles. These 3 boards are of oak, 3 cm. thick, 1 m. long and 70 

 cm. broad, strengthened with iron bars. Of these boards, the two upper have quite the 

 structure of trawl otter-boards and are also used by us for the Heligoland young-fish 

 trawl, to be described below. The third or lower board is constructed somewhat differently; 

 it is weighted with iron only on one of the shorter borders, not as is usual on the longer 



' Conseil Intern, p. I'explor. de la raer : Rapports et Procès -Verbaux ties Réunions. Vol.11. 1904. p. (62). 

 Appendix E 2 



