174 SCIENCE 12^ SHORT CHAPTERS. 



must not be supposed the fiords or inlets of Scandinavia are 

 usually shallower than the open sea ; the contrary is commonly 

 the case, especially with the narrowest and those which run 

 farthest inland. They are very much deeper than the open sea. 



If space permitted I could show that the great Storregen 

 bank, opposite Aalesund and Molde, where the Stor fiord, 

 Mold fiord, etc. were the former outlets of the glaciers from 

 the highest of all the Scandinavian mountains, and the several 

 banks of Finmark, etc., from which, in the aggregate, are 

 taken another 20 or 30 millions of codfish annually, are all 

 situated just where theoretically they ought to be found. The 

 same is the case with the great bank of Newfoundland and the 

 banks around Iceland, which are annually visited by large 

 numbers of French fishermen from Dunkerque, Boulogne, and 

 other ports. 



Whenever the packet halted over these banks during our 

 coasting trip we demonstrated their fertility by casting a line 

 or two over the bulwark. No bait was required, merely a 

 double hook with a fiat shank attached to a heavy leaden 

 plummet. The line was sunk till the lead touched the bottom, 

 a few jerks were given, and then a tug was felt : the line was 

 hauled in with a codfish or halibut hooked, not inside the 

 mouth, but externally by the gill-plates, the back, the tail or 

 otherwise. The mere jerking of a hook near the bottom was 

 sufficient to bring it in contact with some of the population. 

 There is a very prolific bank lying between the North Cape and 

 Nordkyn, where the Porsanger and Laxe fioids unite their 

 openings. Here we were able, with only three lines, to cover 

 the fore-deck of the packet with struggling victims in the 

 course of short halts of fifteen to thirty minutes. Not having 

 any sounding apparatus by which to fairly test the nature of 

 the sea-bottom in these places, 1 cannot offer any direct proof 

 that it was composed of till. By dropping the lead I could 

 feel it sufficiently to be certain that it was not rock in any case, 

 but a soft deposit, and the marks upon the bottom of the lead, 



as at present. If the ancient glaciers were stopped suddenly, as 

 they may well have been, by the rocky barrier of Mosken, between 

 Vaerft and Moskeneso, and they then suddenly concluded their 

 deposition of till, a precipice must have been formed between this 

 and the deep sea outside the islands, down which the sea would 

 pitch when the tide was falling, and thus form some dangerous 

 eddies. This cascade would gradually obliterate itself by wearing 

 down the precipitous wall to an inclined plane such as at present ex- 

 ists, and down which the existing current flows. 



