THE COD FISHERIES NEAR THE LOFFODEN ISLANDS. G13 



mode of life. lu the following, I intend to give all tlie facts I ascer- 

 tained in this manner; and, as in my former reports, I shall first give a 

 simple description of the course and the method I pursued in my inves- 

 tigations, and then give a brief resume of the results. 



On the 9th of May I left Christiauia by steamer, and, traveling via 

 Bergen and Trondhjem, I arrived at Svalvair on the Loffoden Islands on 

 the 20th. From Svalvcer, I immediately went to the fishing-station of 

 Skraaveu, which, in many respects, I had found the most convenient 

 place for my investigations ; and where, moreover, I had last year left 

 a quantity of apparatus. The season was certainly iarther advanced 

 than when I left the Loffoden the last time; but I was pretty sure that 

 I would not lose my thread this time, but could easily connect my in- 

 vestigations with those of last year. 



My last method of fishing, which in the course of my investigations I 

 bad had to change quite frequently, had consisted in using short lines, 

 with which last year I had caught a considerable number of fish, and I 

 therefore intended to make use of them again ; at any rate, in the begin- 

 ning. There was one difficulty, however, connected with this, viz : the 

 scarcity of bait. Formerly 1 ijad been fortunate enough to obtain fresh 

 herring ; but now I could not get a single herring ; neither could I ex- 

 pect to obtain any shell-fish, as during the winter fisheries nearly all 

 those near the fishing-stations had been used. The only bait which I 

 hoped to obtain w^as a worm, the Fjasramak {Arenicola piscatorum), 

 "which are found here in large numbers, and which are successfully used 

 as bait for small fish at different points along our coast. This worm, 

 which lives deep in the sand of the shore, can onlj^ be obtained by being 

 dug up with a spade ; an operation requiring time and considerable 

 skill, if it is not to be cut in pieces. 



After I had spent several hours in i)rocuring such worms I had my 

 lines prepared, and set them in those places among the outer islands 

 where the water has a depth of 20-30 fathoms, and where last year I 

 had caught many fish. I was again successful ; but what struck me as 

 i)ecuiiar was the circumstance that nearly all the fish which I caught 

 were so large that I could not well consider them as one-year-old fish, 

 but rather as two-year-old fish ; and as I must get the one-year-old fish, 

 I could not be satisfied, but had to find out where these fish staid. By 

 setting my lines nearer to the coast, and in shallower places, I succeeded 

 in catching some one-year-old fish ; but so few, that I became convinced 

 that the great mass of these fish did not stay here. There was, there- 

 fore, no other chance left but to make investigations at random, with 

 the hope of finding their place of sojourn. I had been obliged to do 

 similar things so often during my previous investigations, that I was by 

 no means worried by it ; as 1 had not the slightest doubt that sooner 

 or later I would find the one-year-old fish. 



Instead of the heavy line I got myself a thinner hand-line with which 

 I intended to fish at various points, and which would enable me to go 



