38 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



in which the long night holds its undisputed sway, when the light 

 of the sun has given place to that of the moon, and the rosy flush 

 of dawn and sunset to the glow of the Northern Lights, that the 

 dwellers in the far north gather in the rich harvest of the sea. 



About the time of the autumnal equinox strong men are prepar- 

 ing themselves all along the coasts of Norway to secure the harvest 

 of the North. Every town, every village, every hamlet sends one 

 or more well-manned ships to the islands and skerries within the 

 Polar Circle, to anchor for months in every suitable bay. Making 

 the ships or the homesteads on shore their head-quarters, the fisher- 

 men proceed to gather in the abundant booty. In the height of 

 summer the whole country is still and deserted, but in winter the 

 bays, islands, and sounds are teeming with busy men, and laborious 

 hands are toiling night and day. Spacious as the dwelling-houses 

 appear, they cannot contain the crowds of people who have as- 

 sembled; many must remain in the ships, or even seek a rough- 

 and-ready shelter in rudely-constructed turf-covered huts on the 

 shore. 



The bustle is at its height about the time of the winter solstice, 

 when we celebrate our Christmas, and the Norsemen their Yule 

 festival. For weeks the sea has been yielding its treasures. Impelled 

 by the strongest impulse which moves living beings, guided by 

 irresistible instinct to sow the seed of future generations, there rise 

 from the depths of the sea innumerable shoals of fishes — cod, 

 haddock, and the like. They ascend to the upper strata of the water, 

 approach the coasts, and throng into the straits, sounds, and fjords 

 in such numbers that they cover the surface of the sea for many 

 miles. Animated, almost maddened, by one impulse, the fish swim 

 so thickly that the boat has literally to force a way among them, 

 that the overweighted net baffles the combined strength of the 

 fishermen or breaks under its burden, that an oar placed upright 

 among the densely packed crowd of swimmers remains for a few 

 moments in its position before falling to one side.-^ Wherever the 

 rocky islands are washed bare by the raging high tides, from the 

 mean tide-mark to the lower edge of the turf which covers their 

 summits, the naked rocks are covered by an unbroken ring of fish 



