SALMON-FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY 



would tear it to shreds ; and both shores of the Sogne 

 Fjord are girt with such rocks, which at high water are 

 treacherously hidden ; so that to sweep the fish ashore 

 as in river work would be impossible. Here, then, some 

 other contrivance is called for, and the Norwegians supply 

 the deficiency by means of a trap peculiar to themselves. 

 A very rough, narrow-gangwayed pier is built out from 

 the beach, generally inclining upwards, so that to walk 

 to the far end of it is like going up a ladder. The gang- 

 way ends in a broad platform, and from one of the two 

 sides a net can be lowered. A gill-net weighted, or tied 

 to the stanchions that support the platform is sunk 

 from one of the sides, its lower edge reaching to the 

 sand, its upper covered at high water, but visible as soon 

 as the tide has run out. It is weighed up at intervals 

 and cleared from the platform or from the boats below. 



While we are in the neighbourhood, we must take a 

 peep at the salmon-fishery as worked by the Lapps and 

 the Finnish peasant fishermen. 



The Lapps use spears ; also a small and very elementary 

 seine, and do their fishing from tiny, skin-covered canoes. 

 Before the boats go off, the men keep a careful eye round 

 for the sea-swallows, or the " luck-bringers," as they call 

 them ; small marine birds that, for some reason or other, 

 elect to follow the outward or inward course of the salmon, 

 and so are infallible guides to the fishermen. Where 

 they fly the boats follow ; and so tame are the birds, 

 that many will take scraps of fish from the men's hands. 



The Finns go in for trapping ; making a form of weir 

 which, at least in the last hundred years, has altered in 



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