190 SEA FISHERIES 



the shoals of Nantucket, living among the codfish, 

 is a species known as Lopholatilus chamceleonticeps. 

 In 1878 a sudden frost killed nearly all these fish. 

 An area of 7,800 square miles of sea was covered 

 with hundreds of millions of their dead bodies. From 

 1878 to 1882 no lopholatilus was seen. Between 1883 

 and 1893 a few specimens, gradually becoming more 

 and more numerous, reappeared in the bays. To-day 

 the repopulation of these banks by this species is 

 complete. 



Not only are the resources of man negligible as com- 

 pared with those of the sea, but as the tastes and habits 

 of consumers are not everywhere the same, the same fish 

 are not caught everywhere in the same proportions. It 

 is therefore certain that in many regions there are virgin 

 grounds teeming with fish. 



The Icelanders do not eat herrings. The herring 

 fishery along the coast of Iceland was always negligible, 

 and when in 1900 Consul Falck, of Stavanger, sent two 

 small steamers, with nets of the Dutch type, to Leydis- 

 fjord, the catches were extraordinary 536 barrels in a 

 few weeks. In 1902 Norway fitted out twenty vessels, 

 which at the end of scarcely a month brought back 5,000 

 barrels. In 1903 40,000 barrels were taken ; in 1904, 

 85,000 ; in 1905, 120,000. The Danes, Germans, and 

 Swedes have followed the example of the Norwegians. 

 Now the fishery is regularly organised ; it is followed from 

 the first days of July until the middle of September. I 

 cite these details, and the following, from M. Cligny. 

 From the earliest times the islanders and foreigners 

 fished solely for the cod, and with the line. It is only 

 quite recently that the trawlers of Grimsby and Aberdeen 

 have used the trawl on these virgin grounds. " It is 

 difficult to describe the prodigious catches of the first 



