242 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



the wind blows from the north it is always cold, 

 and one is glad of a greatcoat. However, in 1916 

 we were lucky, and experienced spells of lovely 

 warm weather in late May, June and July, with 

 gentle breezes from the south-west. 



Hammerfest itself lies snugly in the quiet bay, 

 surrounded on three sides by mountains covered 

 in May with snow-fields ten to twelve feet deep. 

 To the west it is more or less open, but protected 

 by the long island of Soro, on which are high moun- 

 tains four or five miles distant. The harbour is 

 deep to the quay sides, and in spring is crammed 

 with the small motor fishing-boats, whose crews 

 are ever coming back, getting ready again, or going 

 north to fish. In my quiet room in the hotel, 

 facing the west, one was never, day or night, out of 

 the sound of the passing boats, the croak of the 

 raven, or the screams of amorous Herring-Gulls. 



The fishermen prepare their long, deep sea-lines 

 in harbour, some of their lines carrying as many as 

 15,000 hooks. They bait with small fresh herring 

 caught by special bait steamers at the mouth of 

 the Alten Fjord. Women are employed at baiting, 

 and some of them earn as much as forty kroners 

 a day at this job, although it only lasts a short time. 

 The boats are at sea for from three to four days, 

 and then return with their catch and sell the fish 

 to local merchants, or to sailing vessels, who gut 

 and salt them, and, when full, go south to Bergen 

 and Aalesund. 



In spring the fish usually caught are cod, but 

 numbers of halibut, hake, haddock, red fish, 

 coal fish, and flounders are also taken. The 

 spring fishing of 1916 was more or less a failure, 



