— 
/ 
more open fjords towards their home, all crammed with food. 
This consists partly of fry of fish and their ova, especially of the 
Coal-fish, and partly of small crustaceans, which the sea-currents 
drive backwards and forwards, in enormous masses, both close 
to shore and out at sea. Among these are the little copepod 
Calanus finmarchicus, transparent as water; this food they share 
with the Rudolphi’s Rorqual (or ‘“‘ Coal-fish Whale,” Balenoptera 
borealis), a species of whale of medium size, of which in some 
seasons (as in 1885), nearly 800 head are captured on the coast of 
Norway. Another crustacean occurring in large quantities, 1s 
the “ Kril” (Euphausia ineymis), a small species of Thysanopod, 
half-an-inch long, which also forms the chief food of the Blue 
Whale (Balenoptera sibbaldiu), the largest of all now living (or 
probably of formerly existing) creatures, when this sea giant 
stands in under the Norwegian coast in the summer months. 
And the Blue Whale in turn must yield its life to the explosive 
harpoon-shell, whilst it lies on the surface of the water and 
gorges on these small crustaceans, which form its only food during 
its sojourn with us, and of which even up to ten barrels* have 
been found in the capacious stomach of some of the examples 
that have been captured. 
The Kittiwake builds its nest upon the narrow shelves on the 
steep cliff wall, where they hang like swallows’ nests out over 
the breakers. In the course of years they become constantly 
larger, since they are extended and added to each year, so that 
at last they may reach a height of several feet. They are a 
tangled mass of straw (bents) and sea-weed, copiously saturated 
by the droppings of the birds and their young ; sometimes they 
are situated so low down, that the spray of the surf reaches them, 
but such things affect neither the young nor the sitting birds. 
In the winter the mountain remains deserted. The birds, 
which are often seen in whole clouds at sea, or under the land, 
engaged in fishing, never then sit on the Klubbe. In March they 
suddenly return, and occupy it all at once; at the end of August, 
when all the young have taken to the water, they once more 
leave it. 
* A Norwegian 7zde (= barrel) holds about 30 gallons (= 3.83 bushels).— 
Transl. 
