162 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



lake the mountaiD-tront are said to reach a weight of 8 pounds. I 

 caught oul}- oue youug tish, of a silver white color. But at the mouth 

 of a little stream flowing into the lake I caught quite a number offish, 

 all of a dark color and very different in sha^je from fish caught in the 

 lake. 



In Lake Heradsvatn there are trout and mountain-trout ; the latter 

 are caught in nets, while the trout are caught only occasionally. Un- 

 fortunately the rain and fog prevented me from getting a good view of 

 this lake. The Xordra Eiver is very rocky and has a clean bottom. 



At Silfrastadir the river flows through a narrow valley, one rock ris- 

 ing above the other. Here and there there are small even places, and 

 occasionally there is a small island in the river ; and in some places 

 there were large and deep holes in the rock filled with water. In some 

 of the largest of these holes I found young fry which had been hatched 

 this year, and also some young tish, probably hatched in 1883. Some 

 of the sandy places in the bed of the river, which during the spawning' 

 season are under water, i^robably serve as spawning places. The water 

 has a milky appearance, and the bottom, as everywhere in this neigh- 

 borhood, seems to be stony. 



On account of the rain I could uoi examine the river Svarta, which, 

 however, does not offer any peculiar features to the observer. 



At Bolstaderhlid I caught ten fish, all trout, weighing about 3 pounds 

 each. These fish had a great many spots. They were lean, and seemed 

 to be exceedingly voracious. Their stomachs were tilled to repletion 

 with dark vegetable matter (seeds, stems, old leaves, «S:c.). which prob- 

 ably had been swallowed, so that nothing which the current carried 

 with it should escape a trial at digestion by these fish ; an evident in- 

 dication that these fish have a hard struggle for existence. I also found 

 in the stomach and the intestinal canal, beetles, spiders, larvae of a 

 two-winged insect, and in one the remnants of a young trout. There 

 are very few plants in the bed of this river, and none at all along its 

 banks. 



After having passed the Svarta and the Blanda, which near the ferry 

 is said to contain no fish, I reached the farm Solheimar on Lake 

 Svinavatn where I remained from August IG to IS waiting for better 

 weather. This lake contains trout reaching the Aveight of 10 pounds. In 

 Lake Svinavatn the Gasterosteus imngitius is said to be the principal 

 food of the trout; and in the stomach of the one which I examined I 

 found also remnants of this fish. Fishing is carried on with nets, and 

 ■with lines with English steel hooks, and pieces of fish for bait. The nets 

 are 12 fathoms long and 1 fathom deep; they are lowered by means of 

 a stone partly sewed up in a piece of cloth. One farmer may catch from 

 two to three thousand during the summer season, which are eaten either 

 fresh or salted. In Lake Svinavatn the trout is of a better quality than 

 the mountain-trout. 



The river Laxii, which also receives water from Lake Svinavatn, flows 



