AN ACCOUNT OF THE FISHERIES IN NORWAY IN 1877. 733 



c. Fixed nets, seines, and har-nets. — The mackerel is caugbt, too, with 

 lixed nets {saettegarn), seines (ryldcenot), and bar-nets {lastenot). The 

 fixed nets are cast either just under the water or at the bottom, but 

 this method is not very productive, the nights being too clear. It is 

 more successful when the mackerel is pursuing schools of newly- 

 hatched herrings, because then they approach the coast. The seines 

 and bar-seines give place sometimes to a productive fishing when the 

 fall mackerels enter the fjords ; 20,000 have been taken in one night. 



2. Preparation of the mackerel and the trade. 



Formerly the mackerel was salted and exported in barrels. Its prin- 

 cipal market was Eastern Norway, Sweden, and a small portion of Eng- 

 land. The roe furnished besides 4,000 to 5,000 barrels a year. More 

 recently they have begun to send to England in suitable vessels almost 

 all the production, which for this purpose is preserved in ice. 



F.— THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 



The lobster is the largest and most useful of the European crustaceans. 

 It is found on all the coast of Norway, and as far north as the Arctic 

 Circle, in the sea and in the fiords, but above all between Christiansand 

 and Sondmore. 



In winter the lobster remains in deep waters ; it returns to the coast 

 in the spring and resorts to rocky bottoms, covered with sea-weed. It 

 has always been the object of an active pursuit, but it would have 

 remained without importance if the exportation and certain sale in Eng- 

 land of the living lobster had not stimulated the ardor of our fishermen. 

 It employs a considerable number of hands, and has become very gen- 

 eral and lucrative, so much the more as it is accessible to the poorest 

 and most infirm, requiring very simple and cheap implements, and to 

 manage all merely the experience necessary to handle an oar. 



The most primitive tool consists of a pair of wooden tongs 3 to 4 yards 

 long, with which the lobster is sought for (preferably iu the morning), in 

 quiet, clear weather, the lobster at such times loving to resort to the 

 sea-weed, nourishing itself with the little animals that infest it. This 

 method of capture is only practicable when it comes sufficiently near the 

 shore, and when the weather is tranquil ; sometimes, too, the lobster 

 is pinched so strongly that it dies. 



Hardly anything is used now for taking the lobster but tines or 

 barrels. These are made of slender rods nailed at considerable intervals 

 on small hoops. The intervals are filled with cords of hemp stretched 

 across so as to form a sort of net. At each end is a funnel with a large 

 enough mouth to permit the entrance of the lobster. On top of the bar- 

 rel is a cover closing by a bolt, and in the middle is hung another bolt 

 or peg to which the bait is attached. Under it is attached a flat stone 

 to make it descend, and to one of the upper bars is a cord i^ermitting 

 the barrel to descend to the bottom at a depth of two to four fathoms. 



