Nets and Traps in the Fjords and Rivers. 29 



increase of salmon-netting, but I may mention that about 

 thirty years ago there were only about three hundred nets 

 along the coast, whereas at the present time the number 

 exceeds six thousand. 



Whatever proficiency Norwegians may have attained 

 in the capture of cod and the more common sea-fish, until 

 within recent years they would not appear to have possessed 

 much aptitude in the capture of salmon, and the progress 

 they have made in the art is mainly due to the adoption 

 of the various patterns of nets and the methods of using 

 them as practised in Great Britain, and in consequence 

 they hold their tutors in considerable esteem. 



Even at the present time in the northern districts of 

 Norway, the flesh of the salmon is valuable for food only 

 in the neighbourhood of its capture, but lower down the 



m- 



coast improved means of transport and the system of 



■• re-icing the packages during transit have opened up 



%. the industry of salmon-netting, and as the natives have 



,S5 a particularly keen scent for £ .*?. d., they are not slow to 



adopt the best systems for the purpose. 



Their coff"ers were filling with the proceeds of the golden 

 eggs while they paid not the slightest regard for the goose 

 that laid them, and, as was certain to be the case, the stock 

 of salmon gradually but surely decreased until even the 

 extinction of the species seemed possible in the not-far- 

 distant future. ^ ■ - > 



f 



