RIVER FISHERIES. 



all the fishermen own the boats and nets they use. The herrings 

 are principally sent to Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Great Britain, &c. 

 The produce of tiie sprat is estimated at 40 to 50,000 barrels. 



THE MACKEREL FISHING, 



Each boat produces about from 1,000 to 3,000 each night, but by 

 the barrage (large) nets the fishermen sometimes catch 10,000 to 

 20,000 in a single haul of the net. This fishery has been so much 

 develoyed in the last few years that there are now about 2,.")00 boats, 

 which have caught from thirty to thirty-five millions of fish during 

 a season. They are so abundant that they are preserved in ice and 

 sent to England. The roe of the mackerel that are consumed in 

 Norway, as well as the cod roe, are sent to France, as bait for the 

 catching of sardines. 



LOBSTERS, 



The lobster fishery is of great importance in the northern districts 

 of northern Norway, for it not only supplies a very much prized food 

 for the population, but it supplies an export commerce amounting in 

 value to not less than from 7, to 800,000 francs a year, (^32,000), 

 and in addition to the crab fish. 



OYSTERS, 



All along the coast from Namsenfiord to Christianafiord you meet 

 with banks of oysters, some of large extent. They supply the wants 

 of the country ; but in consequence of ignorance or negligence many 

 of the oyster banks have been destroyed or exhausted. Now, how- 

 ever, they are beginning to better understand the value of these 

 natural sources of wealth. The existing banks are treated with much 

 more care, oyster culture is becoming much more general, and 

 there is every reason to believe that this shell fish will become one 

 of the most important products of the country. 



SALMON AND TROUT, 



There is scarcely a river or rivulet in Norway of any importance 

 in which the salmon is not found justly named the noblest of fishes. 

 The salmon fisheries have been justly regarded as one of the great 

 sources of national wealth. It is met with in the sea on almost every 

 part of the coast, and in most of the feords ; but it is very rarely in 

 large quantities, in consequence of the ignorant avidity of the fisher- 

 men, wh have partly depopulated these waters by capturing the 

 young salmon. The law forbids the catching of salmon from the 14th 

 September to the 14th of February ; it forbids the placing of nets 

 across the rivers, or any fixed engine across the entrance to the 

 rivers that might exclude the salmon from mounting the streams ; 

 it has fixed the mesh of the nets at a minimum of 6 centimetre, and 

 prevents the catching of any fish of less than 21 centimetre in length. 



