CKABS, LOBSTEES, ETC. 215 



few pinches of salt, and served with a sauce, of which 

 sour cream forms the principal ingredient. Soles are 

 almost unknown in Norway, and I never saw more 

 than a single pair of that popular English fish in the 

 Christiania fish-market. On inquiring their price of 

 the old woman to whom they belonged, her answer 

 was, " Oh, take them for nothing if you like, they are 

 nasty sea-devils !" Although the sole is so scarce 

 here, the common flat fish is abundant enough. The 

 whiting and mackerel are also very common and 

 cheap, the latter especially so, as it is only eaten by 

 poor people, from the popular belief that it preys on 

 the bodies of those who have been drowned at sea. 

 A short time since, some sailors who perished in a 

 shipwreck in the Christiania-fjord, were found to have 

 been half eaten by mackerel ; the fish has been very 

 unpopular in the town ever since. A horrible story 

 is related of a man who, bathing in the Christiania- 

 fjord, was set upon and devoured by a shoal of 

 mackerel ; he was seen struggling in the water, with 

 his arms and the upper part of his body covered with 

 mackerel as thick as bees. 



Crabs are very common in some of the Norwegian 

 fjords, and a favourite dish in this country is a hot 

 crab-pie. The crab is carefully shelled, and is then 

 placed in a dish covered with a thick layer of puff- 

 paste ; this is a very appetizing dish. 



Lobsters are found in any quantity off the south 

 coast of Norway, and a soup made of young lobsters 

 is delicious a dainty dish even for Lucullus ; thou- 

 sands of lobsters are sent annually from Laurvig, a 

 small seaport in the south of Norway, to the London 

 markets. I have frequently purchased live lobsters in 



