186 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [20] 
but when this takes place the organic substances have for the greater 
part been destroyed, and the numerous aquatic animals living on the 
bottom do the rest of the work. I once had occasion to examine some 
of the remnants of the entrails of a whale which were accidentally 
brought up by the bottom-scraper in the fiord near Vadsoe. It looked 
like a mass of wool rolled together, as only the thin and tough sinews 
had been left, all the flesh and fat having disappeared. There was no 
unusual odor from these remnants. Itis my opinion that but very little 
time is required to reduce the entrails to this condition. It is a well- 
known fact that in the arctic regions large animals, the walrus or polar 
bear for instance, are completely skeletonized by sinking them to the 
bottom and letting them lie there for a few days. There are a number 
of small marine animals, especially amphipods, which make their ap- 
pearance in enormous masses, and do the work of skeletonizing very 
thoroughly, and which are everywhere to be considered as diligent sani- 
tary police, clearing off from the bottom all decaying organic matter. 
In the Varanger-fiord these small animals are found in enormous masses. 
In the Vadsoe Sound alone I discovered 20 different kinds of amphi- 
pods, and these have on the whole been found to be identical with those 
usually found in the arctic seas. 
(10.) In conclusion, if I am asked what I suppose to be the cause of 
the last years’ poor fisheries in the Varanger-fiord, I must—referring to 
my investigations of this matter, and to what I have said regarding it 
above—express it aS my conviction that the principal causes are of a 
physical and meteorological nature, and that the whale-fisheries have 
much less to do with it than is generally supposed. Although it cannot 
be denied that under certain circumstances these fisheries may disturb 
the course of the capelan and their distribution over the different fishing- 
stations, there is nothing to justify the supposition that the capelan 
have ever been driven away from the coast thereby, or have been pre- 
vented from reaching their accustomed spawning places.* During the 
present year the capelan-fisheries in the Varanger-fiord were not very 
successful, as hardly any capelan entered the fiord, and public opinion 
very generally ascribed this to the whale-fisheries, no one ever thinking 
of other possible causes. As such a cause I have mentioned meteorolo- 
gical conditions, and my experience in this respect is fully borne out by 
that of the fishermen. If we inquire into the meteorological conditions 
of the present year we find that the whole spring and early summer till the 
24th of June were unusually cold andraw. The temperature of the sea 
*One of the complaints raised during my stay at Vadsoe was that a single cannon 
shot fired near Great L’kkero from the steamer of the Iarfiord Company caused the schools 
of capelan and the whales to leave this neighborhood, not to return again; but it may 
well be asked why the same was not the case at Vardoe and Kiberg, in the immediate 
neighborhood of which shots were fired repeatedly. It was evidently a mere accident 
that the capelan disappeared at the same, or nearly the same, time when the above- 
mentioned shot was fired; and there is every reason to suppose that the same would 
havehappened if no shot had been fired. 
