66 



THE OOLOGIST. 



WM. H. FISHER, Baltimore, Md. 



Iq their general aspects these islands 

 strongly resemble the neighboring main- 

 land of Norway, al)ounding in steep 

 clitt's, rocky promontories, and deep 

 bays and inlets. Some of them are 

 merely great jagged rocks rising from 

 out the water, wliile others are larger 

 and are inhabited. 



The inhabitants of these rugged is- 

 lands beyond the Arctic circle aie not 

 degiaded savages, but civilized men. 

 Their civili/ation may, indeed, lack 

 some of the refinements found in more 

 favored localities, Ijut still it is a Christ- 

 ian civilization, and the hardy islanders 

 enjoy as large a measure of pi'osperity 

 and»content as llie people of other 

 lands. 



The houi=es an^ built of wood, are 

 covered with sod and prepared to keep 

 out the Arctic cold. They are not sur- 

 rounded by orchards and (ields of grain, 

 there is little room for farming on these 

 stoney islands, and a little garden plot 



is the most that the richest islander can 

 expect. 



The houses on the more southern is- 

 lands are mere huts and the inhabit- 

 ants, though free from want are very 

 poor, but as you proceed farther and 

 farther into the bleak polar regions you 

 find houses that are larger and better, 

 and people who are more prosperous 



This is the direct opposite to the con- 

 ditions we generally find in other parts 

 of the woi'ld, for it usually happens, es- 

 pecially among civilized men, that 

 whenever soil and climate prevent the 

 growing of crops, poverty and want be- 

 gin. The Lofoden islander, however, 

 does not gather his harvest from the 

 land but from the sea, and winter is his 

 harvest time. 



In the autumn when our days and 

 nights are of equal length, the sun, 

 which has shone on those islands for 

 six months without setting, graduallj'^ 

 sinks from sight, and after a few days 

 twilight the long Arctic night and win- 

 ter begins. 



The islands that at other times are 

 lonely and forsaken are now visited by 

 numerous fishing and trading vessels 

 and take on the appearance of active 

 industry. 



The teeming life of the tropic seas is 

 wanting in these waters at other sea- 

 sons, but in the winter all the fish that 

 have been hatched hei'e obey an irre- 

 sistible instinct and I'eturn to their na- 

 tive bays and fjoi'ds to deposit their 

 spawn. 



Bays, gulfs, sounds and inlets, usual- 

 ly almost uninhabited, now swarm 

 with tinny visitors and nets are filled to 

 the bursting with the catch. Fisher- 

 men gather in their prey by the boat 

 load, every bare ledge and I'ocky pro- 

 montory is covered with fish that have 

 been cut open and spread out to dry in 

 the keen, salty air. 



Traders are busy bartering their car- 

 goes of merchandise for fish, and there 

 is a rapid exchange of the products of 

 the south for those of the north. 



