NORWAY AND THE FAROE ISLES. 77 



the world. This fact will enable the reader to form a 

 conception of the vast quantity of cod-roe required as 

 bait for the immense number of so-called sardines these 

 boxes must contain; and he will not be surprised to 

 hear that the French expend a yearly sum of .80,000 in 

 its purchase. It is a curious reflection, that the sardines 

 we discuss with so much relish at our breakfast-table, in 

 London or Edinburgh, were caught off the romantic coast 

 of Brittany with cod-roe bait brought from the shores of 

 Newfoundland !* 



The cod-fisheries of Norway are very extensive. The 

 Loffoden Islands, in the winter, are the centre of a really 

 important campaign, vigorously carried on by the stal- 

 wart descendants of the Norsemen against the ill-fated 

 Gadidse. Upwards of 3000 boats and 16,000 men are 

 engaged, and the produce reaches nearly 20,000,000 of 

 cod-fish a large proportion of which are despatched to the 

 British markets. 



On the coast of Faroe an important cod-fishery has 

 been thriving for many years, and the Shetlanders alone 

 send thither a fleet of between fifty and sixty smacks and 

 schooners ; well-formed boats, built and equipped on the 

 most improved principles, and manned by no unworthy 

 descendants of the old Norse Yikingir. Each smack 

 carries a crew of about fourteen men ; so that the Faroe 

 fishery employs about seven hundred and fifty Shetland 

 seamen, besides a large number of men, women, and boys 

 profitably engaged in curing the fish at home. The fish- 



* A considerable portion of the roe thus used is imported, however, from 

 Norway. 



