Translation Series No.1211

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that the salmon migrate from the rivers in northern Sweden into the
southern Baltic Sea. He derives this knowledge from the fact that al-
[p. 229]
ready in 1728 salmon caught in rivers -in northern Sweden were feund to
contain fishhooks of iron and braàs that were used, according to the Royal
Academy of Science, principally as cod hooks in Gotland, bland and in
Blekinge, but not in the Gulf of Bothnia.
The migration is, however, of no interest for us at the moment.
The remark of Gisler is actually the oldest reference to the practice of
hook-and-line fishing for salmon in the Baltic Sea. In the older works of
and Balbin (1679) (after A. Fritsch 1893) is mentioned
I. Johnston (1633)
only the rise of the salmon into the river Elbe for spawning..
B. Benecke (1881) lists the following contemgrary equipment for
the river salmon fishery: seines and salmon traps (spring traps) and for
the coast and bay fishery he mentions beach seines, set nets, as well as
salmon baskets. He writes furthermore that the salmon set lines had beer.
introduced by Pomeranian fishermen into East Prussia where they proved
very successful.
Since there hgd previously been no lino fishing along the coast
in East- and West-Prussia, it is possible that the salmon described by
Gisler concerned fish that hadcome from the Pomeranian coast.
The salmon fisherman Karl Madsen from egenwalderende, who
was born in 1881, provides information about a pelagic catch of salmon
at a distance of 10 to 15 nautical miles from shore. He had learned earlier
from older relatives that anually in Nàvember a fleet of sail Mats, 7 to
8 m long, sailed from Farther Pomerania more than 250 nautical miles to .
Liepnja ("Liebau"), in order to fish there for salmon with set lines,
200 to each boat, until Christmas. The fishermen lived during this time.
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