362 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4J 



their number was only 3. After that year, however, their number in- 

 creased more rapidly ; in 1872 their number was 9 and the number of 

 sailing vessels 14; in 1882 the last sailing vessel was fitted out for these 

 fisheries. 



The shark fisheries and the Spitzbergen fisheries. — The 

 total number of vessels sent out from Tromsoe was 40, with an average 

 crew of 8 men and an average tonnage of 44. Of these vessels 1 be- 

 longed to Christiania, 1 to Arendal, 2 to Stavanger, 1 to Bergen, 1 to 

 Trondhjem, 1 to Helgeland, and 34 to Tromsoe. Four of these vessels 

 did not catch anything. The vessels from Christiania and Arendal took 

 home with them all they caught. The yield of the 34 vessels which 

 brought their catch to Tromsoe was the following : 



Crowns. 



211 walrus, at 130 crowns 27,430 



5,426 seal, at 16 crowns 86, 816 



226 whitefish, at 100 crowns 22, 600 



80 polar bears, at 60 crowns 4, 800 



265 reindeer, at 10 crowns 2, 650 



907 kilograms eider-down, at 2.25 crowns 2, 041 



1,015 hectoliters shark liver, at 21.50 crowns 21, 822 



Total 168,159 



Of the 40 vessels 23 were stationed near Spitzbergen, 6 near Nova 

 Zembla and in the White Sea, and 11 near Havbroen. Besides these 

 vessels, 2 from Sandefiord and 2 from Aalesund were engaged in the 

 Spitzbergen fisheries, and caught 166 whiting, 190 seals, 3 walrus, 2 

 polar bears, and besides secured a small quantity of eider-down. 



Regarding this year's fisheries (1883), the Tromsoe Fishery Association 

 reports as follows: "In the Murman Sea, or near the entrance to the 

 White Sea, where seal fisheries are going on in May and June, the fish- 

 eries were very successful. Near the Kolguev Island an unusually 

 large number of seals were caught. Owing to the favorable condition 

 of the ice near Spitzbergen, which allowed the fishermen to go farther 

 north and east than usual, a larger number of walrus was caught than 

 during any previous year. '3?he violent persecutions to which these 

 animals have been exposed for many years have driven them farther 

 north and east, where they can be caught only in years when there is 

 not too much ice.* The shark fisheries which were carried on along 

 the Tromsoe coast were less successful than usual, while a good many 

 of these fish were caught in the Waranger fiord and near Spitzbergen." 



The fisheries near Spitzbergen, principally for walrus, seals, and polar 

 bears, which in former times had been in the hands of the Dutch and 

 later in those of the Russians, were not shared by the Norwegians till 

 the year 1820. Till 1860 Hammerfest was the principal Norwegian port 



*Tlie average annual number of walrus caught from 1830 to 1834 was 1,807; in 

 1876 the number caught was 1,286; in 1878, 621; in 1881, 444; and in 1882, 148. 



