214 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



These figures are takeu from a report by Professor Schmidt, of Dor- 

 pat, on the "Artificial fertilizers at the second Baltic agricultural 

 exhibition, June, 1871," who adds that none of the articles seem to have 

 attained enough importance to secure a place in the wholesale market. 



The Norwegian fish guano. 



286. By far the most important of European fish-waste products, in 

 fact the only one that has been made in large enough quantities to bring 

 it into very general and widespread use, is the aSTorwegian fish guano, 

 manufactured from the waste of the fisheries on the Lofoden Islands, 

 and elsewhere on the Norwegian coast. 



In the Polar Sea, near the 70th parallel, north latitude, off the 

 extremely wild, rough, and dangerous coast-of Northern Norway, near 

 the famous and dreaded maelstrom, lies a group of islands, rough, rocky, 

 and precipitous, the peaks of some shrouded in eternal snow, about 40 

 in number, and bearing the name Lofoden. The neighboring mainland 

 is inhabited b^' nomadic tribes of Laplanders. The islands have neither 

 four-footed beasts nor food for them to live upon ; but the sea about 

 them teems with fish, and the air with sea-fowl. But few human beings 

 are there, except during the fishing season, from February until April, 

 when from 12,000 to 14,000 fishermen come, with 3,000 to 4,000 boats ; 

 bring scanty supplies of coarse bread, dried fish, and bacon; live in mis- 

 erable huts, sleep in sheep-skins; and with lines that have sometimes as 

 many as 3,000 hooks apiece, catch from 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 codfish 

 per annum. These fish are cut up ; the sides are dried and sold as " stock- 

 fish" all ov^er the world. A part of the residue is used in the northern 

 regions as cattle food. The heads and backs were formerly thrown into 

 the sea or left to rot upon the rocks. Of late years, however, they are 

 gathered, dried upon the rocks by the sun's heat, ground in factories 

 that are scattered about in sheltered bays, and thus made into the Nor- 

 wegian fish guano. A business circular concerning the Lofoden fishery 

 products says that the cods' heads and backbones are collected mostly 

 by women, children, and infirm persons, who cannot take part in the 

 fishing, dried either on the bare rocks or on poles, and then ground, put 

 in bags of about 2^ cwt., and shipped ; the material delivered at Ham- 

 burg at the rate of about £9 per (long) ton. The circular adds that 

 " it has been a great benefit to the Lofoden fisheries to get rid of this 

 waste which formerly spoiled the bottoms of the fish banks, and infected 

 the habors, where in some places it used to lie knee deep upon the 

 beach." Another account states that the gathering of the refuse has 

 already become an important industry for the poor people there. 



The earliest notice I have seen of the Norwegian fish guano is by 

 Stoeckhardt* in 1855, who then reported the manufacture as started on 



* Der Chcmisdte Ackcrsmann, 1, 1S55, s. 23G. See articles by Stoeckhardt and bj' Meinert 

 in same journal, I, 1856, s. 118; V, 1859, 44; VI, 1860, 59; IX, 1863, 117; XV, 1869, 43; 

 XVI, 1870,43 and 53; XVI, 1871,245 ; and Lavdw, CentralhlaU, 1874, 613 ; and by Vobl. 

 Diugler's Pohjt Jour., CCXV, 1875, 460. 



