AN ACCOUNT OF THE FISHERIES IN NORWAY IN 1877. 735 

 G.— THE WUALE FISHERY. 



Eight or uiue years ago a bold speculator, Mr. Svend Foyu, of Tons- 

 berg, comraeuced, to capture the whale on the coasts of Fin mark by 

 means of a special steamer. The whales are chased with harpoons 

 thrown by cannon expressly constructed for the puri)ose. This harpoon 

 is charged at the lower part with an explosive ball which bursts as 

 soon as the harpoon has penetrated into the flesh of the animal, and 

 kills it instantly. The result is very lucrative, Mr. Foyn having cap- 

 tured in certain years as much as forty and odd whales.* 



Admitting that a Finmark whale furnishes about 2,100 gallons of raw 

 oil, worth 32 cents a gallon, and $40 to $G0 worth of whalebones, it 

 represents thus a value of $G00 or $700. 



A company for catching the whale has been established, and another 

 is in process of formation. t 



H.— THE SEAL FISHERY. 



The seals which are the object of this fishery are the Greenland seal 

 [Phoca groenlandica) and the hooded or bonnet seal {Cystopliora cristata). 

 The Norwegian sailors pursue them in the icy sea between Greenland, 

 Spitzbergen, and the island of Jan-Mayen. Formerly, they occurred 

 even upon the coast of Finmark. 



The ship owners engaged in the seal fishery belong principally to the 

 city of Tonsberg. Steamers are now almost exclusively employed. The 

 expeditions set out in March, April, and May, and the annual product 

 has reached about $300,000. The cost of the seal-fishery equipment 

 is comparatively expensive; tfie crew averages 46 men to a vessel, and 

 their pay is very high ; the product is therefore rarely very lucrative. 

 The vessels, sheathed with wood and iron, carry eight or nine canoes 

 that are lowered into the sea when the pursuit is about to begin. The 

 seal is killed with the gun, and after being taken on board is flayed and 

 the fat gathered in the raw condition in large casks. 



The city of Tromso, from April to September, mans several boats to 

 go to the island of Jan-Mayen to hunt adult seals. As to the spring 

 fishery, the seals are attacked when they have just brought forth their 

 young, which causes the loss of a great number of the latter and fright- 

 ens the females, who take refuge in places inaccessible to vessels. This 

 fishery has been prosecuted in an equally barbarous manner by the sail- 

 ors of all nations, assuming, indeed, the character of a war of extermi- 

 nation, until Norway took the initiative in international measures for 

 the protection of the animals. Norwegians are prohibited to go in pur- 

 suit of the seal before the 3d of April, the period when the young can 

 look out for themselves, in the area extending between 67° and 75^ 

 north latitude, and 5° east and 17" west of the meridian of Greenwich. 



The capture of the gulf or harbor seal {Phoca vituUna), dolphin or por- 

 * Nearly ninety in 1877.— Translator. 

 t The whales taken are for the most part finbacks.— Translator. 



