IV.-REPORT OF PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS 

 OF THE COD FISHERIES NEAR THE LOFFODEN ISLANDS, 

 MADE DURING THE YEARS 18G4-1860.* 



Bv G. O. Sars. 



A.— EEPORT FOR 18G4. 



As the subject of my iuvestigations for this year, I selected the 

 Loffodeu fisheries as being the most extensive of all the cod fisheries on 

 our coasts, and went to the Loflfoden Islands during the first days of 

 January, in order to be in time for the beginning of the fisheries. As 

 regards the plan of my investigations, it was my intention above every- 

 thing else to make myself familiar with all the circumstances and con- 

 ditions of the fisheries, so as to gain a sure foundation on which further 

 investigations might be built. I was therefore traveling nearly all the 

 time, and during the winter I visited most of the fishing-stations. At 

 every place I visited I paid close attention to the manner in which the 

 fisheries are carried on, and to the natural conditions which might be 

 supposed to have some influence on them ; I likewise listened atten- 

 tively to the accounts of experienced fishermen, and considered these of 

 special importance for me, being entirely unacquainted with these fish- 

 eries. In this manner I have gained much important information, but 

 I have also heard many erroneous and contradictory opinions expressed. 

 In the following report I have therefore given only what I found to be 

 true by my own observations, or what I at any rate considered highly 

 probable. It will scarcely be necessary to explain why I have given to 

 my report the character of a connected narrative. It was my object 

 during the present fishing season to obtain as far as possible a gen- 

 eral view of these fisheries, and I therefore give the information gained 

 in this manner in the way which seems to me to agree best with nature's 

 laws, reserving to myself the liberty of corroborating or correcting by 

 further investigations whatever I dare not give in this report as abso- 

 lutely certain. 



A GrENEEAL VIEW OF THE LOFFODEN FISHERIES, AND SOME PHYSI- 

 CAL CONDITIONS WHICH SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO SPECIAL OONSID- 

 EEATION. 



The Loflfoden fisheries are of very ancient date. They are spoken of 

 at a very early age, and seem then to have been carried on chiefly by 



* " ladberetninger til Departementet for det Indre fra Cand. G. O. Sars om de af ham 

 i Aarene 1364-69, anstillede praktisk-videaskabelige Undersogelser angaaende Torake- 

 fiskeriet i Lofoten." Christiania, 1869. Translated by H. Jacobsou. 



565 



