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For fish of 25 lbs. the score the average price was c. 13,0 0re per ])>. 



- — - 30 - - — - 13,3 - - - 



— - 35 - - 13,6 - - - 



— - 40 - - — - - - 13,75 - 



The plaice, consequently, reaches its greatest value per lb. with a weight 

 of 20 lbs. the score; i. e. it is the best commodity when it has that size. If 

 we take it for granted, as I have here stated, that the Oattegat now produces 

 fish of c. 10 — 14- lbs. the score, we must by this production 1) lose 2 — 3 0re 

 per lb. fish sold, besides suffering a greater loss by the multitude of little fish 

 which cannot be included in the calculation (the underzised fish); 2) lose 

 the difference between that quantity of fish-meat which the Cattegat now 

 produces and the quantity it would be able to produce, if the stock of 

 fish were not »cut« so short as the case now is. 



For it cannot well be doubted that the same area of sea would be able 

 to give a quantitively greater profit as a constancy, when we suffered the 

 stock of fish to he as fully developed, as in the years before the too eager 

 fishing commenced, — and then took exactly so much as the slock could repro- 

 duce liji new growth. - - It is constantly presumed that this might easily be 

 done in the Cattegat with the present fishing-fleet. — 



Nay, can there be no doubt of it after all? — Might it not be possible 

 thai the Cattegat could produce a far greater number of plaice of 10 inches*) 

 every year than for instance of 14, and even so many move that those of 

 10 inches weighed together more than those of 14V 



That there are more plaice of c. 10 inches than of 14 inches in the 

 Cattegat is a given thing, when all the seasons of the year are taken together, 

 I nit that the} 7 together should weigh more than those of 14 inches is little 

 probable; for a plaice of 10 inches weighs less than ' .._, lb., and one of 14 

 generally more than the double; more than half of those plaice that are 10 

 inches long must consequently die before they reach the 14 inches, if not those 

 that attain this length taken together should weigh more. 



But we might also very well think, it will here be objected, that they 

 die or are eaten by other fish or the like; for, after all, the plaice can reach 

 only a certain size, and there were even in earlier times not very many in the 

 Cattegat that were, for instance, 25 inches; so there must be a limit in its 

 size, at which the plaice grows slowly and the mortality, therefore, is great 

 with a given length. 



•) Tin 1 measure is here taken to the tip of the tail, net to the base of the caudal fin. 



