SALT-WATER FISHERIES OF NORWAY. G99 



years, I thought that the favorable opportunity for making these inves- 

 tigations offered by our polar expeditions should certainly be used, in- 

 stead of making special journeys which would have to be paid out of 

 the appropriation. This arrangement has proved very advantageous 

 both from a pecuniary and a scientific standpoint, as during the last two 

 years only a very small portion of the appropriation has been used, and 

 this although important investigations have been made. 



It will be remembered that last year already I i)ublished the results 

 of the investigations made by me during the first expedition. During 

 the second expedition I likewise considered it as one of my most impor- 

 tant objects, not only to make strictl}^ scientific zoological observations, 

 but also to observe everything which might throw more light on our 

 important fisheries. Among the questions touching the practical fish- 

 eries there was the exact placing on the maps of the outer banks (the 

 so-called "Havbro"), and the searching for localities which, like the 

 famousllomsdal banks ("Storegg"') might prove successful fishiug-places. 

 As the outer banks generally form the boundary between the cold and 

 warm area, and as it was of great importance from a purely scentific 

 standpoint to determine the exact boundary, the physical and biological 

 investigations had in a measure to take the same direction as the prac- 

 tical and scientific observations ; and we consequently concentrated our 

 attention on the solution of this problem. On the cross-lines running 

 perpendicularly toward the coast all these points were carefully exam- 

 ined ; and the stations which are closer together here will also show on 

 the maps the conscientious methods of our investigations. 



It thus became possible to obtain a tolerably correct idea of the con- 

 figuration of this whole long-stretched barrier which on our western and 

 northern coasts shelters us from the cold area and forms the outermost 

 limit of our coast-waters. 



If one connects the different stations examined by us on our two ex- 

 peditions, by a curved line, at a depth of about 300 fathoms, which depth 

 indicates the boundary -line between the cold and the warm area, it will 

 be found that this curve at a different height has two distinct indenta- 

 tions in a northwesterly direction from the coast, and here the bound- 

 ary line between the cold and the warm area is consequently nearer the 

 coast than at any other point. 



One of these indentations in the submarine barrier is off the coast of 

 Romsdal about ten miles from the land, and is bounded by the well- 

 known fishing-station of " Storegg." The other is four degrees farther 

 north on the outer coast of the Loffoden, and near Vesteraalen, still nearer 

 to the coast, and is bounded by a similar distinctly-marked barrier (" Eg")^ 

 the "Lofot-egg" or "Yesteraals-egg." Midway between these two in- 

 dentations, northwest of the Vigten Islands, the curve runs again more 

 than forty miles from the coast, and north of Tromso it makes a very 

 sharp turn. If similar curves are drawn at a depth of 400, 500, GOO fath- 

 oms, &c., it will be found that at the two above-mentioned places, the 



