3i6 The Field Nahiralist' s Qtmrterly Nov. 



of things remarkably illustrating the gregarious instincts of 

 the species : for on one occasion, when the skipper had 

 suspended work for a few hours to give the hands a much- 

 needed rest, such a shoal invaded the waters as piled high 

 the decks of every neighbouring trawler that happened to be 

 towing at the time, yet vanished as suddenly as it had ap- 

 peared when our nets were once more shot. 



Frequent visits were paid to us, while in Faxe Bay, by 

 crews of coast Icelanders. Hardy sons of the old Vikings 

 are these shore-dwellers, with their high cheek-bones, fair 

 hair, and keen blue eyes, buffeting the waves and enduring 

 the bitter cold often enough for twenty-four hours and more 

 at a stretch in their small open boats. To them the develop- 

 ment of the Iceland fisheries has meant much. Formerly 

 they wrested a bare living from the sea by fishing with lines 

 for cod (as they still do when few trawlers are in the bay), 

 and curing the hardly-won catch on the beach for sale to the 

 store-keeper in the town, who, after getting the best of a hard 

 bargain, exported the fish to Spain and other fish-eating 

 countries. But since the advent of the steam trawlers the 

 coast Icelander pursues a different course. Now he makes 

 a tour of the different ships, and barters whisky or cigars, 

 or even home manufactures such as slippers of seal or sheep- 

 skin, for a load of small or useless fish, rejected by the 

 skipper, but which he carries back to the curing grounds 

 and turns to profitable account. English shipowners hear 

 of this traffic with disapproval, fearing lest valuable fish be 

 thus lost to them : but in most cases the alarm is unnecessary, 

 while the fishing-grounds benefit by the removal of waste that 

 would otherwise be flung overboard to rot on the bottom. 



The visit of two whales to the bay, while we yet lay there, 

 must not be forgotten. The day was fine, and the sea dead 

 calm ; and the astonishment of the writer may be imagined 

 when, hearing a sudden snorting noise behind him, he turned 

 and perceived, close to the ship's side, the great back of a 

 whale slowly rolling over in the water. A similar apparition 

 immediately followed the first, there being a pair of the 

 monsters present. From what could be seen of them during 

 the momentary glimpses afforded as they came to the sur- 

 face, they should have been a couple of young pilot whales. 



