NORWEGIAN LOBSTEE-FISHERY AND ITS HISTORY. 231 



goes out to sea. In this manner, the fishery has been arranged for more 

 than one hundred and fifty years, as it seems, by the Dutch, of which more 

 will be said under the history of the fishery. Nowadays, the fisher- 

 men receive a far higher price for their lobsters than formerly, and as 

 a general rule they get in Stavanger and Bergen from 4 to 41 cents 

 apiece, but farther north they are cheaper. Formerly, when the price 

 in Stavanger was lower, about one-half cent extra was given for every 

 lobster caught before the middle of May, but this custom has been aban- 

 doned. The dealers who receive the lobsters from the fishermen receive 

 about GO cents as box-money for every thousand, and 20 to 25 cents for 

 every hundred they bring to the chief depot for every fall mile they 

 travel with them. The wholesale dealers receive the same box-money, but 

 besides $3 as weekly money. If they do not keep any boxes themselves, 

 but receive them from the lobster-company, the retail dealers get $3 for 

 every thousand, and the wholesale dealers $4.50 for every thousand, 

 but, in that case, no week-money. When the lobster- vessels go to sea, 

 they always go straight over to England, to Grimsby and Harwich, 

 while formerly they went to London, anchoring near Greenwich in the 

 evening, unloading the lobsters during the night, and taking them to 

 London, where they arrived in the Billingsgate market before sunrise. 

 Now the vessels, on arriving in one of the above-mentioned ports, go 

 into the dock, which is specially intended for them, and the lobsters are 

 unloaded into the fish-boxes belonging to the dock, which are rented out 

 for one English shilling a day. These fish-boxes are shaped like a boat, 

 are* 11 yards long and 5 feet broad, but have a flat bottom. They 

 are hoisted up so that the water runs off, and the lobsters are sent in 

 suitable baskets by railroad to Billingsgate. Sometimes they are sorted 

 in the ports, but this is mostly done in London. The largest lobsters 

 are picked out, and twenty are always packed in a basket, which gets a 

 black stroke as a mark. The smaller ones are packed forty in a basket, 

 and get two strokes as a mark, while the smallest are packed sixty in a 

 box, and get three strokes as a mark. The baskets with one stroke are 

 more valuable than those with two and three, although these latter con- 

 tain more lobsters. The wholesale dealers in the market get them from 

 the railroad and sort them, and they then pass over to the fishmongers. 

 These boil them, and send the finest to their best customers in the city 

 and the country, while the small ones are sold in the city to cheap res 

 taurants and private individuals. 



In the Billingsgate ftarket, the lobsters meet their brethren from the 

 English, Scotch, and other coasts. From the south coast of England, 

 they come by the Southwestern Bail way, and by the Great Western 

 from Bristol, to which ports they have come from Guernsey and Jersey, 

 the Scilly Islands, aud Land's-Eud. From Scotland, the Orkney Islands, 

 and Lewis Island about 180,000 come every year, partly in steamers* 

 from Ireland, they come by way of Liverpool • while a smaller number 

 come from Sweden and Heligoland. All these are gathered in the 



