ln till" iiiiiiM- part .if the I'.als ImiuiI. he lislicd. un an avcrai^v. 

 3 liters pr. Iionr \\itli a liltlr shiimp Irawi, Imt at the otlirr pla- 

 ces mentioned. /'- lnDvalis onl\ nccniTrii sini.'l.v.') Tlu' anllini- nirn- 

 tioneil is not sure that it would pay to carry on this kiuil of lish- 

 inir, even in tlie Hals Kioni, under prosent condition^. The day 

 Avill, however, doubtless come wlion it will ho found pi'olitahle to 

 do so. also in the northern distiicts whore this siieoios is found. 



I'diicrr jiiijiKnis. LiN. 

 The species is of no importance in the economy of the northciMi 

 districts, as it occurs very sparsely. Concerning its distribution, it 

 should be noticed that M. Saus-') . mentions haviny- found it at 

 Lofoten. Spauue Schxioidek has informed nu> that it does not go 

 so tar north as Tromso. Schnkider has also told me that the 

 common crab, Cairhius ma('ii((>', has its northern limit at Hyio and 

 the outer coast of Senjen. For the present. Ltdbten ouiiht. thero- 

 foi'e, to be considered to ho the northern limit for (\ iKujitrus. 



Hoiiiitnif: <iimiiiKini!<, Lin. 



M. Saks says (I. c. p. 1211 that lobster is only rarely found 

 in Lofoten and the Folden Fiord ((i7',2" N.). 



Later on, it was proved that lobster is found in the Tys Fiord. 

 In 189(3 ,,NordIands tiskeriforening-", on the suggestion of inspector 



Dahi., decided to use a sum of money on tiial lishery. About on(! 

 hundred l(d)sters, ]art;e and of a -ood flavour, were caught, but no 

 actual lohstoi- lishery has resulte(| from this trial. It would indeed 

 be i|iiite uni(pie. if an animal should be fouml in such large quan- 

 tities near the boinidary limits for its distribution as to make it 

 possible to carry on a prolitablc catch. 



Tt is, of course, a necessary condition that, to be of any 

 economical impoi'tance, a marine animal must occur in comparatively 

 large numbers within a limited area. Bucr'niinn muhttiDn, for 

 instance, would no doubt be excellent bait, but as it does not occur 

 so close together as Pectoi isl/didicii.s or ('//iiriiiK ishimlirfi it is of 

 little pi'actical iinjiortance. 



A form, w liich has recently been taken into use, is Xi/ctiplKnii-x 

 yiiin-njicn. M. Nahs. At one place in the Trondhjem Fiord (near 

 Veidalsoi'cn) a lai'ge number of this iSchizopod is washed ashore, 

 and in recent years they have been salted and used, with excellent 

 i-esults, as bait for haddock (Godas æylefiiiusj.') On our northern 

 coasts. Bor euphd USUI inennls occurs in large numbers, and it is 

 probable that also this foi-m. as well as Xi/cfijiliintes. may be used 

 as bait for haddock. 



b. The ..Skrei" Fishery in Lofoten. 



The Lofoten tisheiy is very old. In the latter half of the 

 9th century Tokolv Kveldulvsøn lived at iSandnes in Alsteno, 

 and it is said of him, in Egils historical tales, that he had sent 

 men out fishing „skrei'' at Vaagan (Lofoten) and some were also 

 gone to tish herrings.^) In the same tale too, it is related that 

 Toroja- sent his ti-usty man Toegils gjallande to England with 

 a vessel laden with dried „skrei", furs, etc. And wheat, iKuiey, 

 Avine and clothes made up the return cargo from England. There 

 are many historical references, in the following centuries, to the 

 fisheries in Lofoten, but I will only here refer to some of them. 



The tackle used in the old times took the form of hand-lines, 

 about A. D. 1600 longlines came into use, and about the year 

 1700 nets appeared upon the scene. At the present day all three 

 are used. 



For several centuries the ,,skrei" was exclusively prepared as 

 „dried fish", the head was cut oft" and entrails taken out and then 

 the fish was hung up to dry. ToAvards the end of the 16th cen- 

 tury some trials were made to prepare „klip" fish (tor-fisk = 

 dried fish = stockfish [commercial], klipfisk = salted, dried cod). 



In a description of Lofoten in 1591,'') we read that the fish 

 was first salted and then dried on the rocks so that it became 

 „as hard as a piece of wood". In the same account, it is also 

 mentioned that in the summer when the fish were dried and the 

 oil was pressed out of their livers, traders came to Lofoten to 



') Cf. H. Klær, Om fm-ekonistun iif (l.vbv.-iiiclsni-ker vcd 'rromso. Norsk 

 Fiskeritidende, 1903, p. «24. 



2) Kristiania Vid. Selsk. Forh. 18.58, p. 123. 



») Cf. Egils saija Skallagrimsonar. Reykjavik, 1892, p. 3». 



„Han hnvdi pa menn i shridfiski i Vcigum, enn surna i sitdfiskir' 



••) Beskrivi-Ue over Lofoten o. s. v. Det kgl. norske Virl. Selsk. Skr. i 

 det 19de uarh., 13. 1, p. 473. 



barter barley, rye, salt, iron, clothes, linen etc. in exchange for 

 the fish and codrliver oil. The primitive i)reparation of the latter 

 consisted in the collecting of the liver in large cisterns, which were 

 exposed to the direct heat of the sun, the oil was thus melted out 

 and drawn oft' little by little. About the middle of the 17th cen- 

 tury, cod-roe began to be considered as an article of commerce. 



Preben von Ahnen, the last of the feudal lords of Nordland, 

 made strenuous efforts to ett'ect the sale of cod-roe, and in lO.'i.'s 

 he obtained a license from Fredrik III to trade in this article.-) 



About the year 1600, Peder Claussøn Friis relates that it 

 was forbidden, under severe penalty, to throw single cod heads into 

 the seti, for fear that fish should eat them to their harm. If one. 

 at that time, wished to be quit the heads of cod one had to string 

 them together and sink them. However, the same writer mentions, 

 some heads were dried to be used as fodder. Now-a-days, the 

 heads and back bones, which are removed when cod is prepared 

 as „klip"fiih, are made into guano in factories erected for the 

 purpose. iSo that not only the flesh of the cod, but also its head, 

 backbone, liver and roe are now made use of. The sperm bags 

 are also sometimes used as fodder, but the rest of the entrails aie 

 still thrown into the sea. 



The honour of founding the present cod-liver oil industry 

 belongs to a Norwegian pharmaceutical chemist. Peter Moller, he 

 having started the first factory for the preparation of medicinal 

 cod liver oil in 185.3. 



His son. Dr. F. P. Møller studied the subject also, and he 

 has, in a compreheusive work,') explained the scientific ba.sis of the 

 method adopted by his father. 



') Cf. NOHDOAARD, Et nyt agu for liysen. Norsk Fiskeritidende, 1903, p. lilK. 

 ^) Cf. O. Nicolaissen, Fra Nordlands fortid. Kristiania, 1S89, p. 80. 

 :•) Cod-Liver Oil and Chemistry, London, 1895. 



