222 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



cality, and were captured only near sandy channels. Their color, too, 

 changed from the red- brown of the sea- weed to a fine greenish, with 

 silvery sides. In their stomachs were found quantities of siil, (Ammo- 

 dytes lancea — sand-eel,) which now were approaching the coast, and the 

 tarefisk had evidently left the crustucea to prey upon them. The siil, 

 less common and important in Southern Norway, is abundant on the 

 northwest coast, and is held in high esteem. Although too slender to 

 be captured in nets, it is taken by a large, coarsely woven cloth, worked 

 by several boats. This cloth is slipped under a school of siil, and the 

 corners being raised the catch is dumped into one of the boats and piled 

 in heaps on the shore. These heaps are left there without further care, 

 and the mass, half putrid, is accounted good food by the inhabitants, and 

 is also served to animals. The cod are more dainty, and will not touch 

 stale fish of any kind. Therefore, the siil for the fishery are got by dig- 

 ging in the sand where they have buried themselves, and where, at this 

 season, they deposit their spawn. I took in the sandy channels plenty 

 of cod, of one, two, and three years ; also some very large ' siiclod,' three 

 feet long, and these I saw were the same as the ' winter-cod,' except 

 that the spawn was but little developed. x\t this season, also, came the 

 sei, (Gadus carbonarhts — pollack.) It was a singular spectacle to watch 

 the sea-mews sitting in solemn lines and in perfect silence along the rock 

 ledges, their heads all at one angle. Suddenly, as if by common im- 

 pulse, they would spread their wings, and with a shrill cry hasten toward 

 a foamy surface on the sea. This was occasioned by the sei, which had 

 rushed to the surface in pursuit of a school of siil, and the birds were 

 coming to share the prey. Thither, too, came the fishermen and trolled 

 with artificial minnows, taking, strange to say, some cod with their other 

 fish, which shows that cod occasionally are attracted to the surface. 

 Later in the season, the cod refused siil, which seemed to be because 

 they were in pursuit of the young herrings, then abundant in Vest- 

 fjord." 



