414 
Part HI. —Ninth Annual Report 
up ships, could not possibly pay without high prices, and yet at present 
the prices have touched a figure lower than seemed possible. Despite 
heavy freightings, the price still brings a profit. It is true that barrels 
and salt were both very cheap in 1889, and this circumstance certainly 
contributed to make an average price of 11 francs pay. The fishermen 
had no reason to complain, still less the traders, for the demand for Dutch 
herring continued lively the whole year in spite of the severe competition ; 
more arrived, not only from Scotland and Norway, but also from France 
and Sweden, in consequence of which they had to depend more on foreign 
markets. ' It is indeed a remarkable fact,' the Report states, ' that, while 
' the export of Scotch herring since 1884 decreased from 1,185,000 to 
* 774,000 barrels (35 per cent.), ours in the same year increased from 
* 191,000 to 310,000 barrels (more than 60 per cent.). And, indeed, not 
' only do we still hold the foremost place in the markets of Middle and 
' South Germany, taken long ago by our herring, but we are also in active 
' commercial relations with North Germany — relations formerly of little 
* consequence, but now greatly extending. As evidence of this we may 
' state tbat the export to Hamburg in 1889 reached the hitherto unex- 
* ampled figure of 78,744 barrels. All these facts show that our herring 
' fishery and herring trade are in a prosperous condition, and are strongly 
* developing in spite of the low prices.' 
The Large and Traiol Net Fishery. — The prosperity of the herring fishery 
was the cause of the decline of the large and trawl net fishery. For a 
number of years our luggers and sloops prosecuted in summer the fishing 
for herring which during winter and spring was unproductive ; for neither 
the trawl net nor the large net brought up as much as paid expenses. It *^ 
brought little profit, and now the cessation of it is of little importance. 
For a long time the famous fishing fleet from Middelharnis, Pernis, and 
Zwartewaal, which took no part in the herring fishing, but during the 
whole year fished with the large net, was an exception to this rule, and it 
was able, on account of the high price for salt fish and fresh fish, to make 
considerable profit ; but in the last years the profits have decreased and 
now almost wholly disappeared, because the fishing is gradually falling 
off. The real coast fishery is in a still worse condition. Fishing with the 
large net for haddocks, at first so productive, especially at Schereningen 
and Egmond, has wholly fallen otF, while the gains of the drag-net fishery, 
in spite of the astonishingly high prices for fresh fish, gradually have 
become less. The best kinds of fish, especially sole and turbot, have 
diminished on our coasts as well as on those of England and Scotland. 
If in 1889 small plaice had not been found on our coasts in unusually 
great quantities, the pecuniary results of the drag-net fishery would have 
been very small. 
Zuiderzee Fishery. — The abundance of small plaice is probably evidence 
of close connection between the North Sea and the Zuiderzee fisheries. In 
Dr Hoek's most important account of the condition of tfie staple fish in 
the Zuiderzee (which is given as an appendix to the report), he mentions 
that among the very small fish which he found in the Zuiderzee the plaice 
were most numerous, a circumstance from which he concludes that the 
Zuiderzee must be the nursery of the plaice which appear on the coasts. 
If this is actually the case, then the numerous catch in 1889 is readily 
explained by the fact that the nursery of these plaice, through the re- 
strictions or limitations imposed on the Zuiderzee, has been much better 
protected in the last two years than formerly. 
Concerning the Zuiderzee fishery itself, in 1889 it was still far from 
flourishing. The anchovy fishery, which is usually the most profitable, 
failed entirely, and the catch of herrings from October 1888 to May 1889 
