252 



O. Nordgaard. 



is well founded, it is at the same time settled that an increased 

 interest will be attached to the question of the causes of, and laws 

 governing, atmospheric pressure. Hut this is an exceedingly difficult 

 problem, for, as an English scientist, F. W. Harjiek 1 ). says: 

 „It seems impossible in these questions to distinguish between cause 

 and effect. Temperature, pressure, winds and ocean currents act and 

 react upon each other as links in an endless chain." 



It is evident that, if the connection referred to really dues 

 exist, an important advance in weather prognostications will also 

 be of some weight with regard to the prediction of the fisheries. 

 And it would then be a reasonable supposition that an investigation 

 of the distribution and degree of heat of the Gulf .Stream in the 

 Norwegian Sea, in December, for instance, would provide material 

 which would make it possible to get an idea of the prospects for 

 the subsequent Lofot fishery. Similarly, it may be supposed that, 

 if the fluctuations in the fisheries were given a place in the group 

 of phenomena, which vary during the so-called ..I'.riickner Periods", 

 a helpful plan of the rise and fall which occur in the fisheries 

 might be obtained, by means of the historical-statistical method. 



One is then tempted to conclude with regard to the Lofot 

 fisheries that as the years 1SS6— 95 were unusually favourable, it 

 is not likely that the present marked poor yield of cod can last 

 much longer, a change for the better must soon occur. It is. 

 however, a fact that the changes in climate hardly occur with the 

 regularity which the word ..period" demands. In the last edition 

 of his Meteorology, Mohn writes (p. 302): -- „Beyond the daily 

 and the yearly period in the course of the meteorological elements, 

 we know no other period in the weather changes, (hie day, the one 

 year, is not like the same day, another year, one month, the one 

 year, is not like the same month another year; there is, indeed, a 

 variation from one year to another in the weather, which seems quite 

 irregular." 



But on the other hand, the circumstance that bad years, — 

 as well as good years, - - both on land and at sea are inclined to 

 follow each other, would seem to modify the supposition that there 

 is an interchangeable tightening and slackening in the play of for- 

 ces. At any rate it will be exceedingly interesting to follow the 

 working out of the problem: - Are there periods of years which 

 are characterized by great downfall, high medium water-level, good 

 winter herring fishery, less good cod fishery, cold summers, with 

 sometimes „grcen" years for the farmer; and are there periods of 

 years when there, is little downfall, low medium water-level, good 

 cod fishery, less good herring fishery, dry and warm summers, with 

 sometimes „dry" years for the farmer? 



With regard to the special problem here being dealt with, 

 what has already been said will, 1 hope, make it clear that there 

 seems to be an agreement between the yield of the cod and herring 

 fisheries and the winds, for whose influence the downfall has been 

 used as a measure. To this method may be objected that the cod 

 and herring fisheries are carried on in certain months, while the 

 calculations of the downfall are made for the whole year. But it 

 should be noticed that those months, in which these fisheries are 

 carried on, are the richest in the year in downfall. Consequently, 

 there will hardly be any real difference in results on account of 

 the method here adopted. It might, however, perhaps be found 

 that the agreement between the winds and the yield would be 



greater, even in details, if the downfall for the months September — 

 December were taken in conjunction witli the downfall in the months 

 of January — April in the succeeding year. Any very detailed 

 agreement must not. however, be expected, as the catch for a single 

 year is only an unreliable measure of the actual quantity of fish 

 present. 1 ) 



The observations of downfall are of comparatively recent date 

 in our country, consequently they can only be used as a measure 

 of the effect of the winds, during recent years. But there are 

 other things which give hints as to the conditions previously. Dur- 

 ing the last period of years in which there was a surplus down- 

 fall, a storm flood occurred in Lofoten and caused much damage. 

 Richard Hansen writes about this, as follows: — ..During the 

 w r eek, 19th — 26th January (1901) a violent storm of wind from 

 southwest to northeast raged; and on the 22nd, there was such 

 high water that it was unparallelled in the memory of the oldest 

 inhabitants, and much damage was done by this unusually high 

 flood all along the Lofoten district." 2 ) This kind of damaging flood 

 will probably only occur in years with great downfall and high 

 average water-level, so that the mention of such a flood makes it 

 possible to draw conclusions with regard to the weather and mat- 

 ters connected with it. When, for instance, Absalon Pedersshn. 

 in his diary 3 ) mentions that on November 1st 1570 ..a very great 

 and high flood occurred, whose equal no one in Bergen remembered 

 and which did great damage to flour, malt and fish," one might 

 from this circumstance conclude that herring catch was made during 

 these years. From Christmas 1570 to February 1571 there was 

 according to the same writer, severe frost, and the herring fishery 

 that year was a failure, but, the next year (1572) herrings were 

 caught in the beginning of February, and in the years preceeding 

 1570 in February herrings were regularly to be had in the 

 Bergen market. From several sources, we find that the years 

 1740 — 42 were ..bad" ones or „green" years. Professor Hans 

 Stb0m, in his well-known description of Sondmor, mentions that 

 spring-herring fishery was started there about 1740, „that is to 

 say about the same time as the general failure of crops occurred 

 in Norway." And at another place, in the same work, he says 

 that the summer is generally short and warm, but ,.from 1740 the 

 summer here has generally been cold and damp with thick fogs, 

 which have continually come in from the sea and brought a cold 

 northerly, or westerly, wind in its wake." Here we have a clear 

 combination of bad weather and inflow of spring-herrings, and this 

 is not the only example of its kind. The first „green years" men- 

 tioned in our history occurred during the reign of Harald Graa- 

 feld (961—970), and were exceedingly bad. Snorre relates that 

 „the country people were almost entirely without grain and fish". 

 At Helgoland, there was great hunger and want. Oivind Skald e- 



') Influence of winds upon climate during the pleistocene epoch. Quart. 

 .In, mi. Geol. Soc, vol LVII, L901, p. 457. 



] ) After this was written, J. Rekstab's interesting treatise on the changes 

 in Norwegian glaciers was published („Om Justedalsbraeen" Berg. Mus. Aarb. 

 1904). Rekstad comes to the conclusion that temperature exerts a greater 



influence than downfall on the changes in the glaciers, and in the course of his 

 investigations, he lias compared the downfall curves for the period 1st Slay — 

 1st September, and from September — May. He says (1. c. p. 70): „On con- 

 sidering the anual curves and those tor tin' 8 winter months, it was found that 

 they (downfall curves) pretty closely corresponded. When the annual downfall 

 was great, the same was the case in the winter months; and when the annual 

 downfall, on the contrary, was small, the corresponding was found to be true, 

 with regard to the winter months.'' 



3) Norges Piskerier 1901, Nr. 2, p. 109. 



3 ) Cf. Nicolaysen-'s edition (1860), p. 203. 



