564 JlEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



77 degrees (Fahrenheit) ; even while out at sea the weather was warm, 

 calm, and sunny, and in some of the harbors surrounded by high rocks 

 the heat was actually oppressive. 



" Such sunny summer days, appreciated all the more because they 

 are few and far between, occur in all these northern latitudes ; but not 

 so often as to make the inhabitants forget how far north they live ; for 

 the changes in the weather are very sudden. Even now the horizon 

 began to grow dark ; a black wall of clouds rose rapidly in the south 

 over the Vestfiord, and we had scarcely reached Svolvar when a whirl- 

 wind swept along the coast with appalling fury. For about half an hour 

 a perfect hurricane was raging, then it suddenly grew calm again, and 

 under a cloudy sky with a moist atmosphere and an occasional drizzle 

 the steamer continued its course, gently rocked by small waves. When 

 we reached Reine, where massive cyclopean rocks rise above the low 

 coast, forming crater-like cavities partly filled with snow, another 

 whirlwind was raging. The pilot said that here was the cave of the 

 winds, and truly when a short while after we left Reine it was per- 

 fectly calm. 



" Such sudden whirlwinds coming on without the slightest premon- 

 itory sign are by no means of rare occurrence in these northern lati- 

 tudes. If in the case of such a sudden whirlwind the crew do not im- 

 mediately strike sail the boat is upset, and the only means of safety is 

 to reach the bottom of the boat and to cling to it. Most of the inhabit- 

 ants of these parts carry a strong knife in a leathern sheath in their 

 belt ; no fisherman is ever without such a knife. This knife they then 

 plunge deep into the keel and hold fast to the handle. If, as happens 

 sometimes, one of these boats is driven on the coast, the knives sticking 

 in the keel, among them one broken off at the handle, resembling the 

 fatal Runic characters, tell more eloquently than words could do one 

 of those tragedies of which more than one is acted every year in those 

 stormy seas. All along the west coast of Norway far up toward the 

 north it is considered a rule that of three persons regularly following 

 the occupation of fishermen one meets with his death in the waves of 

 the ocean." 



