342 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.: [2] 



to be prepared, will rarely be as careful as on shore, if the herring are 

 brought home in good time. This is the reason why the Scotch fish- 

 eries, wTiich are principally coast fisheries, furnish the best herring 

 which are in the market at the present time. Coast fisheries also 

 have the advantage that fewer hands are needed on board the fishing 

 vessel. No large and heavy boats are required, nor is there any ne- 

 cessity for an expensive equipment, and thus greater results are reached 

 with less capital. One of the disadvantages of the coast fisheries is 

 that the fishermen cannot follow the migrations of the fish as well 

 as in the high-sea fisheries, but in most respects the advantage is 

 on the side of the coast fisheries ; and, as matters stand at the pres- 

 ent time, the high-sea herring-fisheries offer such great difficulties 

 that in many places the idea of introducing them had to be abandoned. 

 This does not, however, prevent the high-sea herring-fisheries from 

 yielding a good income under certain circumstances. 



As well-known illustrations of these two different kinds of fisheries, 

 we may mention, among coast fisheries, the l^forwegian and Scotch her- 

 ring-fisheries, and the great Loffenden cod-fisheries 5 and among high- 

 sea fisheries, the Dutch so-called "great" herring-fisheries, and the 

 Dutch, French, and Swedish bank fisheries in the IsTorth Sea. Of late 

 years a new and remarkable form of high -sea fisheries has developed 

 with unusual rapidity, viz, the beam trawl-net fisheries for bottom fish 

 on the large banks in the North Sea, which yields rich results. 



Another circumstance which is of importance in this connection is 

 the employment of different fishing apparatus in the service of private 

 capital. Wealthy firms or associations send out entire fishing fleets, 

 and carry on the fisheries with hired men ; while, on the other hand, 

 there are fishermen who carry on their business with their own vessels 

 and apparatus. It is evident that the first-mentioned method of carry- 

 ing on the fisheries, such as the great fisheries proper, which are worked 

 by men who can at any time be discharged by the owners of the ves- 

 sels, is neither from a social nor an economic point of view so bene- 

 ficial to the fishing population as those fisheries where the fishermen 

 own their material and carry on their business in an independent man- 

 ner. The so-called great fisheries can, therefore, in their social aspect, 

 not be compared with those fisheries which are in the service of small 

 capital. On the coast of Bohuslan, for example, the high-sea fisheries 

 are carried on in such a manner that the fishermen own their vessels; 

 and when one of them becomes feeble, he furnishes another man, who, 

 for half the income, carries on the fisheries in his place. The same also 

 takes place in case of death, when the family which is left behind has 

 a part of the income derived from the deceased person's share in the 

 fishing vessel ; and an energetic man, even if he owns only half a share, 

 can gradually earn enough to enable him to buy a whole share. The 

 "great" fisheries, on the other hand, especially in England, meet with 

 many obstacles, more particularly of late years, after more liberal laws 



