NA TURE 



{Sept. 25, 1884 



of a peculiar shape entirely unknown in Finland. Such hooks 

 have been found in salmon taken in all Swedish and Finnish 

 rivers falling into the Gulf of Bothnia. At one of the salmon 

 fisheries in the Ulea River, for instance, where the fish is sold 

 cleaned, twenty-five such hooks, all of brass, were collected last 

 summer and handed to me. With a few exceptions the hooks 

 are of one kind, viz. made of brass wire 2 to 2'5 mm. thick, a little 

 compressed in the hook itself, while the length varies from 9/5 

 to 1 1 5 cm. Most of the hooks are io'5 cm. in length, a 

 the width of the bend 2 '5 to 3-5 cm. Generally a bit of line 

 1 to 2 mm. thick, made of Max, hangs to the hook, while, w n 

 the line is long enough, a lead, conical in shape and 10 to jo 

 grm. in weight, is found on Sometimes Latin charac- 



ters are engraved on the lead, as, for instance, in one taken in 

 the above-mentioned river last summer, which had on it " C " 

 and " K " on each side. I am of opinion that all the hooks 

 which have passed through my hands are of the same type and 

 manufacture. 



As it is of great practical value to discover whence these 

 peculiar brass hooks have come, I have given considerable 

 attention to the question, the result of which is that I \ 

 to the conclusion that they were brought from the north coast of 

 Germany, where they are used for salmon-fishing in the winter. 

 Great fisheries are carried on along this coast in a depth of 30 to 

 60 m. and 10 to 30 km. from the shore, a, far as, and probably 

 beyond, the Russian frontier. The lines used are very like those 

 used on the south coast of Sweden, but the hooks and leads are 

 quite different. Prof. Benecke, of Konigsberg, to whom I sent 

 a hook taken from a salmon in the Ulea River, asserts too that 

 these have come from the shores of Prussia and Pomerania. 

 As hooks of this kind are not used in any other part of the 

 Baltic or outside of it, it is evident that the salmon must have 

 brought these from the above-mentioned places to the shores of 

 the Gulf of Bothnia. 



It is, "ii the other hand, but seldom that hooks of iron and 

 tin are found in salmon in our rivers, which is caused, I believe, 

 by the circumstance that the Scandinavians use far stronger lines 

 for salmon-fishing than the Germans. I have, however, two in 

 mj 1 -ion which are of the exact kind used by fishermen in 



tboul Bornholm and the south-east coast of Sweden. 



Besides the above-mentioned kinds of luniks I have obtained 

 a very peculiar one taken from a salmon off the town of 

 Kristinestad. It is 4 cm. long, of hammered thick brass wire, 

 and of a very uncommon shape, and through two holes fastened 

 to two double-twined brass wires 40 cm. long, and 1 mm. thick. 

 I do not know from what part of the Baltic this strange hook 

 hails, but I believe from the Russian shore of the same. 



The discovery of hooks of a foreign shape in salmon in the 

 northern rivers of Sweden and Finland was made about 200 years 

 ago, as may be seen in the journals of the Swedish Academy 

 of Sciences of the seventeenth century, and even at that date 

 their remarkable shape and manufacture attracted attention. 



The relatively great number of brass hooks found in salmon 

 taken in the rivers around the Gulf of Bothnia demonstrates 

 beyond doubt that the fish, after visiting the coast of Northern 

 Germany, return to the northernmost shores of Sweden and 

 Finland, while some have visited the southern part of Sweden on 

 theirway north, as the iron hooks clearly indicate. If it is true, 

 as is generally believed, that the salmon returns for spawning to 

 tin rivi rs of its birth, we may with equal force assume that the 

 great takes of young salmon on the southern coast of Sweden 

 and the shores of Baltic Germany during recent years is due to 

 the rigid closing in of the river- ■ if Northern Sweden and Finland, 

 whence they migrate south. During the last fifteen years, since 

 when closing began in the Finnish rivers, the takes of young 

 salmon — from I lb. to 2 lb. in weight — in nets about Bornholm 

 and on the shores of Germany, have fabulously increased, and 

 my opinion is licit these fisheries are of such a destructive nature 

 to this noble fish in Sweden and Finland that some arrange- 

 ment ought to be made between the Baltic Powers to put a stop 

 to the same. 



By marking the salmon in England and Scotland, pisci- 

 culturists have come to the conclusion that varieties of salmon 

 during their stay in salt water visit preferably certain parts of 

 the coast for their food ; thus, according to the late Frank Buck- 

 land, the shores around Yarmouth are the favourite haunts of the 

 " bull-trout" of certain English and Scottish rivers. The great 

 student of the salmon fisheries of Scotland, particularly those of 

 the River Tweed, David Milne Holme, relates as an example 

 of how quickly fish of the salmon kind can travel to a favourite 



feeding-ground, that a "bull-trout" marked with a silver thread 

 with an inscription in the River Tweed, on March 29, 1852, was 

 taken, on April 2, near Yarmouth, having thus accomplished a 

 distance of nearly 300 miles in four days. Another fish was 

 marked in the same river on March 10, 1880, and was caught at 

 Yarmouth on May 5, having taken fifty-five days for the journey. 



As the salmon, Salmo solar, according to the experience 

 gained in Scotland, prefers sandy feeding-grounds during its 

 stay in salt water, and as the bottom of the Baltic on the 

 coast between Memel and RUgen, at Bornholm and South-East 

 " is sand at a certain depth, where its favourite food is 

 found, the cause of the migrations of the salmon in the Baltic 



mthw trds may be accounted for, while their return to the 

 northern rivers of Sweden and Finland in the spring is un- 

 tbly due i" their breedingiiinstincts. 



Helsingfors And. Joii. Malmgrek 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 REPORTS 

 Report of the Committee, consisting of Major-Gen. Sir A. 

 Clark', R.E., C.B., Sir J. X )t. Sir F.J. 0. 



Evans, R.N., K.C.B., F.R.S., Capt. J. Parsons, R.JV., Prof 

 J. Prestwich, F.R.S., dipt. W.J. L. Wharton, R.N., Messrs. 

 E. Easton, R. B. Grantham, /. B. Redman, f. S. Valentine, 

 L. F. Vernon-Harcourt, IV. Wkitaker, and J. IV. Woodall, 

 -with C. E. De Ranee and IV. Topliy as Secretaries, appointed 

 for the Purpose of fnqub ing into the Rate of Erosion of the Sea- 

 eoastt of England and Wales, and the Influence of the Artificial 

 Abstraction of Shingle or other Material on that Action. Drawn 

 up by C. F. De Ranee and IV. Toplev. — The importance of the 

 subject referred to this Committee for investigation i, universally 

 admitted, and the urgent need for inquiry is apparent to all who 

 have any acquaintance with the changes which are in progress 

 around our coasts. The subject is a large one, and can only be 

 successfully attacked by many observers, working with a com- 

 mon purpose and upon some uniform plan. The Committee 

 has been enlarged by the addition of some members who, by 

 official position or special studies, are well able to assist in the 

 work. In order fully to appreciate the influence, direct or 

 indirect, of human agency in modifying the coast-line, it is 

 necessary to be well acquainted with the natural conditions 

 which prevail in the places referred to. The main features as 

 regards most of the east and south-east coasts of England are well 

 known ; but even here there are probably local peculiarities not 

 recorded in published works. Of the west coasts much less is 

 known. It has therefore been thought desirable to ask for 

 information upon many elementary points which, at first sight, 

 do not appear necessary for the inquiry with which this Com- 

 mittee is intrusted. A shingle-beach is the natural protection 

 of a coast ; the erosion of a sea-cliff which has a bank of shingle 

 in front of it is a very slow process. But if the shingle be 

 removed the erosion goes on rapidly. This removal may take 

 place in various ways. Changes in the natural distribution of 

 the shingle may take place, the reasons for which are not always 

 at present understood ; upon this point we hope to obtain much 

 information. More often, however, the movement is directly due 

 to artificial causes. As a rule, the shingle travels along the shore 

 in definite directions. If by any means the shingle is arrested 

 at any one spot, the coast-line beyond that is left more or less 

 bare of shingle. In the majority of cases such arresting of 

 shingle is caused by building out "groynes," or bythe construc- 

 tion of piers and harbour-mouths which act as large groynes. 

 Ordinary groynes are built for the purpose of slopping the 

 travelling of the shingle at certain places, with the object of 

 preventing the loss of land by coast-erosion at those places. 

 They are often built with a reckless disregard of the consequences 

 which must necessarily follow to the coast thus robbed of its natural 

 supply of shingle. Sometimes, however, the groynes fail in the 

 purpose for which they are intended — by collecting an insuffi- 

 cient amount of shingle, by collecting it in the wrong places, or 

 from other causes. These, again, are points upon which much 

 valuable information maybe obtained. Sometimes the decrease 

 of shingle is due to a quantity being taken away from the beach 

 for ballast, building, road-making, or other purposes. Solid 

 rocks, or numerous large boulders, occurring between tide-marks, 

 are also important protectors of the coast-line. In some cases 

 these have been removed, and the waves have thus obtained a 

 greater power over the land. To investigate these various points 



