( 302 ) 



NORWAY. 



(For Plan, see p. 306.) 



LIVING in a country whose soil was poor, and which was surrounded by the sea, the Norsemen, 

 immediately after their immigration from the south or the east, began to utilise this sea, which 

 abounded in fish of different species. But fishing did not satisfy them long; the riches of 

 the southern countries drew their minds towards these happier regions; the woods, which, 

 covered their mountains and hills, offered them the principal materials for attaining the 

 fulfilment of their desires ; and at the same time when the history of Norway begins in the 

 eighth century, the annals of Germany, England, and France, mention the Norse Vikings 

 as plundering their coasts. In the following century we find them in Ireland, where they 

 founded several states under their chiefs (sea-kings), and in the Mediterranean, and in 870 

 they discovered and peopled Iceland. From here they went to Greenland ; and in the year 

 1000 Leif Eiriksson and his followers established themselves in Massachusetts, which they 

 called Vinland. But the Norse colonists could not resist the great number of natives, and 

 being moreover at variance they soon returned to Iceland, from whence they seem to have 

 kept up communication with the new world for the next forty or fifty years. In the middle 

 ages the mighty Hansa-confederacy ruined the Norwegian shipping- trade, but rather benefited 

 the fisheries by improving the commerce of fish produce exported all over Europe. In the 

 seventeenth century and later, the shipping as well as the fisheries, successively, had developed 

 considerably ; and at present, according to the last census, from 70,000 to 90,000 persons, or 

 4 per cent, of the whole population, are employed in the fisheries, and about 50,000 persons, 

 or 2f per cent., in the shipping trade. In many districts, the building of boats for the 

 fisheries is of some importance. In the boats there is a great variety of forms, according to 

 the waters they have to cross and the different kinds of fishery for which they are intended. 

 The visitors to the Exhibition will find a large collection of models of boats in the Norwegian 

 department. As early as the ninth century, the history of Norway mentions the importance 

 of the Vestfjord cod fisheries, describing the Lofoten islands as the principal station. There 

 has never been any record of the non-appearance of codfish at this part of the coast in the 

 season, the quantities varying from miles of shoals to lesser quantities. The herring fisheries 

 were at one time of almost as much importance for the Norwegian commerce as the cod 

 fisheries. At present the winter or spring herring fishery is of little importance, amounting 

 to scarcely 30,000 barrels a year, while the summer or fat-herring fishery produces an average 

 of 600,000 barrels of pickled herrings annually. The salmon, trout, lobster, mackerel, and sprat 

 fisheries are of minor importance, the aggregate value being but 1,700,000 kroner, or 93,000 

 yearly, while the cod and herring fisheries yield the fishermen 21,500,000 kr., or 1,180,000 a 

 year. 



THE GREAT COD FISHERIES. 



THE LOFOTEN COD FISHERY. Lofoten is the name of a group of islands extending south 

 west from the main land from 68 36' to 67 25' and forming with it the great Vestfjord. The 

 permanent population of these islands is scarcely more than 25,000, supported chiefly by 

 fishing. We find however, on some of the larger islands, very good and well kept meadows. 

 Besides the dwellings of the permanent population, there are in every bay, which is in any 

 degree protected from the ocean, a number of huts which the proprietors, who are frequently 

 merchants and fishermen, have built, and let out to fishermen from other places during the 

 season. These huts, which usually are arranged for one or two boats' crews, six to twelve 

 persons, consist of only one room with deal berths along the wall, and another room for 

 keeping the nets, cords and lines, barrels for the roe and oil, and the provisions and clothes of 

 the fishermen. The codfish are taken in Lofoten in three ways, namely, with hand-lines, 

 with long-lines, and with gill-nets. It is generally the poorest fishermen who use hand-lines 

 only. Their catch amounts on the average to 50 fish daily for each man ; sometimes however 

 they get from 100 to 120. For bait they use fresh or salt herrings ; and when these are 



