272 ANACANTHINI. 



twenty yards in width by three feet in depth. There are no falls, but three or 

 four rapids, which at high water are (as regards those nearest the sea) snbmerged, 

 the upper ones being but slightly affected. A small boat could perhaps row 

 from the sea into the lake under favourable circumstances : while the strength 

 of the current could not prevent a fish of the weakest sort from entering the 

 lake : at the same time no sea-water can get in the more so that the head of the 

 Fjord itself is fresh on the surface. This lake is about one and a-half miles 

 in length, its depth unknown, it is fed by the snow melting on the hills far and 

 near, while its water is perfectly and entirely fresh. Trolling with a phantom 

 minnow resulted in the capture of fourteen sea-trout, but the sport was 

 frequently interrupted by attacks from pollack. We were compelled to catch 

 twelve or fourteen (all about 2 lb. weight) as they would not leave us alone. 

 A flock of sea-gulls on the lake behaved as they did on the Fjord outside, looking 

 as if they were trying to strike herring on the surface. On returning to the 

 yacht we were informed by a native that many species of sea-fish entered the 

 lake, and among them herring. On the south side of the Sogne Fjord, aboub 

 thirty or forty miles from the sea, is a Fjord called Fuglescet, a small branch of 

 which is the Sorejde Fjord. The chart showed a lake close to the sea and therefore 

 easily accessible in a boat. Here we found a small river, about one hundred yards 

 long, flowed from the lake to the sea, which, though rapid at low water, was 

 nearly checked at high water. Still the fresh water always pushed out. This 

 lake was two miles long and fed by two snow streams. Using the artificial 

 minnow, for the first half-hour there was no ' run,' then a cod of 1 lb. was taken, 

 next a coal-fish of 21b., then a pollack of 31b., and all these at the inland 

 extremity of the lake, the pollack being actually in the snow-water stream. There 

 was no sign whatever of a fresh-water fish. Not a trout rose along the woody 

 banks where trout would be sure to be were they there. In short, the sea-fish 

 had complete possession of this lake, which, as in the other instance, was entirely 

 fresh. These were not lagoons but rocky mountain (glacier) basins, with rapid 

 streams entering and issuing." 



I have already alluded (p. 54) to marine fishes in the Baltic having become 

 acclimatized to a residence, where the character of the water has gradually 

 changed from saline to fresh, so that the herring and some other sea forms 

 unable to obtain access to the Arctic Ocean deposit their eggs in potable water, 

 and the Cottus quadricornis even migrates to the rivers.* But the foregoing 

 instances show how marine Gadida? may voluntarily enter and reside in fresh 

 waters, while we have no reason to suppose that were their return to the sea 

 cut off they could not live and continue their species in this new locality. 



These fish, especially the cod, occasionally shift their ground, some cause, 

 probably absence or presence of some peculiar food, inducing them to leave 

 localities they had previously frequented : thus the London market used to be 

 supplied from the Orkneys and the Dogger Bank, but during the present century 

 these fish have extended their range to off Lincolnshire and Norfolk in sufficient 

 numbers to render their capture remunerative. 



Fisheries for cod have existed in the north many centuries, as we know that 

 one in the German Ocean was recognized before A.r>. 1368, because in that year 

 the city of Amsterdam obtained permission from the King of Sweden to form 

 an establishment in the Island of Schonen for the purpose of carrying it on. 

 But prior to John Cabot's re-discovery of Newfoundland in a.d. 1496 the 

 fisheries of the greatest importance in Europe were off our western isles nnd 

 the coast of Iceland. English fishermen must have resorted to these latter 

 localities prior to a.d. 1415, because we read that Henry V was disposed at 

 this period to accord satisfaction to the King of Denmark for certain irregularities 

 committed in those seas by his subjects. But since the commencement of the 

 sixteenth century the Newfoundland fisheries have become the most important 



* For other instances of fishes of marine genera living in fresh waters as gobies, blennies, 

 herrings, &e., see Introduction. 



