174 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
told me that in the period of plenty, from 1855 to i860, he had taken 150 in this way 
in a single morning. 
Then followed the hoop net or bag, sometimes called “plumpers” in England, or 
“Fallenkorbe” (basket traps) in Germany, which were in extensive use at the middle 
of the eighteenth and locally to the middle of the nineteenth century, or even later. 
This was a simple iron hoop with bag net attached and often with crossed and arched 
half hoops over its mouth. When baited and sunk it had to be watched and pulled at 
frequent intervals in order to secure the lobsters before they could crawl out. About 
the year 1858 a giant male lobster, said to have weighed from 25 to 30 pounds, was 
taken in one of these hoop nets in Golden Cove, Vinal Haven, Me. 
Travis (264) describes the use of hoops at Scarborough, England, in 1768, but 
Pennant a few years later remarked that lobsters were sometimes — 
taken by the hand , Sut in greater quantity in pots, a sort of trap formed of twigs and baited with garbage ; 
they are formed like a wire mousetrap, so when the lobster enters there is no return. They are fastened 
to a cord sunk in the sea, and the place marked by a buoy. 
This English lobster trap undoubtedly came, as Boeck suggests, from the Norwegian 
“Tejner, ” or baskets, which were the Dutch adaptation of the eelpot, the Scandinavian 
name being derived from “tun,” the long tough roots of the juniper tree ( 24 ). After 
1713 they were made of plaited willow twigs. Linnaeus saw similar baskets in 1746 
in use on the coast of Bohuslan. Herbst ( 136 ), writing in 1790, says that lobsters were 
then caught in “Tuner,” “Teiner,” or lobster baskets (“Hummertienen” or “Hummer- 
korbe”) made of birch twigs. 
The tines in later use among the fiords of the Norwegian coast were sometimes 
made of slats or rods nailed to small hoops, and at considerable intervals, which were 
filled in with interwoven cords of hemp. There were entrance funnels at either end, a 
door at the top, and a flat stone lashed to the bottom for weight, w T hile in the center of 
the trap was suspended a peg for attaching the bait. (See 309, p. 733.) When a lobster 
was taken from the tine, his claws were securely bound with pack thread, and thus held 
until he was delivered to the submerged box or car to await final transportation to 
market. 
Essentially this old-style trap has been retained in Europe, where it is to be seen 
at the present day. Those examined at St. Andrews, Scotland, where they are called 
“lobster creels,” in July, 1896, were small cylinders, made of a wooden frame covered 
with netting, and were anchored by means of a flat stone tied to the bottom. A fisher- 
man with whom I conversed on the beach had 40 of these creels, and was going to haul 
them at 5 o’clock that evening, but with no expectation of taking any lobsters, for, 
as he expressed it, the sea was too calm; rough weather brought better luck. The 
“tiner” of the Helgoland fishermen, according to Ehrenbaum ( 84 ), are birdcagelike, 
cylindrical or four sided, with the bottom weighted with stones, covered with netting 
or wirework, and with funnel-shaped ends, like eelpots. Each is sunk to the bottom 
with attached cord which is floated with corks. In Norway hemispherical wicker 
traps, with funnel at the top, were occasionally used. 
