THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 721 



" By this law, which forbids all fishing during two and a half months, the yield of the fisheries 

 was of course somewhat diminished during the first years following its passage, till the protected 

 youug could reach the necessary size. Thus fewer were exported in 1849 and 1850 than during 

 the preceding years, so that, while from 1840 to 1848 about 600,000 were exported, the number 

 had fallen oil' to 408,310 in 1849 and 427,600 in 1850. This decrease, however, is not merely owing to 

 the circumstance that the number which were usually caught during the close mouths remained 

 in the sea, but likewise to the fact that the English joint stock company which carried on the 

 exportation from the districts of Jarlsberg and Laurvig, began to pay a lower price for the lob- 

 sters, so that the fishermen resolved no longer to catch any even during those months when they 

 were permitted to do so. While from this district there were from 1846 to 1848 on an average 

 about 26,000 exported every year, only 7,960 were exported in 1849, 1,664 in 1850, and none at all 

 during the following years; but, in 1855,14.470 were again exported, chiefly to Copenhagen. 

 Since 1850 the lobster trade has steadily increased, and the governors, in their quinquennial 

 reports on the economical condition of their respective districts, state that protection seems to 

 have produced this result. 



" In the district of Stavanger the exports rose from 1850, when they amounted to 120,653, 

 to 204,803 in 1854 ; in the South Bergen district it is also stated that the fisheries have increased. 

 Of the following years the least productive was 1858, when the exports from the whole Kingdom 

 only amounted to 553,238, on account of unfavorable weather during the whole fishing season; 

 but in I860 the number had again risen to 1,333,037, and kept tolerably steady during the 

 following years, so that the exports during these years were about the same as during the years 

 1825-'30, when they were at their highest, only to decrease very rapidly during the following 

 years. In 1860 the exports rose to 1,000,000, and increased constantly, till in 1865 they very 

 nearly reached 2,000,000, viz, 1,956,276. 



''The complaints regarding the protective law have now ceased, since the Government has, 

 in several districts, limited it by royal decrees, and in many places the people are rather inclined 

 to extend the season of protection than to limit it, as in the district of Stavanger, where two years 

 ago public opinion was in favor cf prohibiting all fishing during autumn and winter, as it was 

 thought that thereby the spring and summer fisheries would become all the more productive. As 

 a general rule, no lobsters are exported from there in autumn and winter, except when some new 

 English companies want to get into the lobster trade, and therefore buy the lobsters at a higher 

 price than is usually paid, so as to ruin their rivals. Then all the lobsters that can be obtained are 

 generally bought during autumn, as was the case in 1845 and 1846, and to some extent in 1864 

 and 1865. During the last-mentioned year such a large quantity of lobsters was caught, on 

 account of the unusually calm weather, that the Englishmen who had urged the fishermen to fish 

 could not take more than one-thir.l of all that had been caught, and the rest died, without being 

 of use to any one. One reason why the fishermen wish to see this autumn fishing forbidden 

 by law is, that even if they were unanimous as to its injurious character, all of them would, though 

 unwillingly, take part in it, (if a small number of fishermen moved by covetonsuess were to catch 

 lobsters, and there was a chance of selling them at that season. They would suppose that those 

 lobsters which they might otherwise get in the spring would now be caught by others in the 

 autumn, resulting in great injury to their trade. 



NORWAY: REPORT OF G. vox YHLEN. The following extract respecting the decrease of lob- 

 sters on certain portions of the Norwegian coast is from a report of more recent date than the above: 



"It cannot be denied that the lobster fishery is gradually decreasing, whether the size or the 

 number of lobsters caught ! 

 SEC v, VOL IT 1:> 



