364 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



To equip a vessel for the cod fisheries, if some provision also is made 

 to catch seal, &c., costs about 2,000 crowns [$536], including salt and 

 ready money advanced to the crew. The yield is divided equally between 

 the crew and the company. The crew pay for their food and their share 

 (one-half) of the salt and provide their own fishing apparatus. Occa- 

 sionally, however, crews stipulate for having free salt. 



In the shark fisheries the equipment for the summer, including the 

 wear and tear of the apparatus, food, and money advanced to the crew, 

 is generally estimated at 2,000 crowns [$536]. If the company provides 

 food, the crew receives one-third of the yield ; while if the crew provide 

 their own food, they receive one-half of the yield. 



Both in the cod fisheries and the shark fisheries the mate receives 2 

 men's shares of the yield, and besides this generally a monthly sum from 

 the company. In all these fisheries the company has the first chance 

 to buy the shares of the crew, at the wholesale market prices. In giv- 

 ing the cost of fitting out vessels for the various fisheries, the insurance 

 premium has not been counted in. The insurance on the Spitzbergen 

 vessels has during the last years amounted to from 5 to 9 per cent of 

 their value. 



Whiting fisheries are said to have been carried on with seines at 

 Spitzbergen by the Eussians during the period from 1820 to 1830. The 

 iJiTorwegians first commenced to engage in these fisheries in 1867, with 

 2 vessels, which caught in all 15 fish. In 1868 eight vessels were en- 

 gaged in these fislieries, and their number increased from year to year 

 till 1872, when it seemed to have reached its greatest height. From 

 that year these fisheries began to decline, and in 1876 only 2 vessels 

 were engaged in them, 1 from Trondhjem and 1 from Troinsoe, the for- 

 mer of which, however, was engaged principally in the cod fisheries. 

 Since then the number of vessels engaged in the whiting fisheries has 

 again risen to 8. 



Nova Zembla, owing to the territorial boundary, has much less impor- 

 tance as a fishing station for Iforwegian vessels than Spitzbergen. The 

 whiting fisheries near Nova Zembla are for this reason almost exclu- 

 sively in the hands of the Eussians, who during the last year have 

 caught a great many fish. Since 1867 a few Norwegian vessels from 

 Tromsoe and Hammerfest have, as a rule, annually visited Nova Zem- 

 bla and engaged in the walrus and seal fisheries, and generally with 

 favorable results. 



As regards the fishing expeditions sent out from Hammerfest, we 

 have received the following report from Messrs. Feddersen and Nissen, 

 with the remark that, as they- possess only very incomplete data, there 

 may possibly be some errors in the figures : 



Hammerfest has sent out on the seal and walrus fisheries near Nova 

 Zembla 5 vessels, with a a total tonnage of 159 tons and about 50 men, 

 i. e., 10 or 11 for each vessel, viz., the mate, first harpoouer, second har- 

 pooner, and 7 fishermen. Each vessel has 2 fishing boats with complete 



