The Shark Fishery for the Oil obtained. 229 



It happens not unfrequently on these occasions that 

 several sharks come to the surface of the water in the wake 

 of the one hooked, swim round the boat, and are caught 

 by means of a swivel hook, fixed to a long gaff, which 

 each boat is furnished with. They are then secured by a 

 hook and strong line to the stem of the boat, until they 

 can be hauled alongside. 



The result of a fishery carried on in open boats depends 

 greatly on the wind and weather. When a boat's crew 

 obtain from two to four barrels of liver, they are satisfied. 

 Under favourable circumstances, however, they obtain from 

 seven to eight ; and if during the course of the winter they 

 can get from 40 to 50 barrels, the catch is esteemed a 

 remarkably good one. Besides the liver, when the fish can 

 be towed to the shore, the flesh is converted into food for 

 the cattle, if there is a scarcity of dried cod's heads, which 

 are prepared for that purpose. 



The flesh is occasionally used also for human food, being 

 cut up into long strips and wind-dried in the open air, or 

 buried in the ground until partially decomposed, when it is 

 taken up and prepared in a peculiar manner, so as to 

 become edible. It requires, however, an Arctic stomach 

 to digest it. 



The basking shark {Selache maximiis), another of the 

 genus, the largest of sea-fish, is found all along the coast 

 from Ryvarden, lat. 59° 31', up to Finmark. This fishery 

 was for a long time pursued with great activity and per- 

 severance, and with such success as for a series of con- 

 secutive years to form the staple and chief support of the 

 inhabitants of the districts in which it was carried on. 

 Of late years their numbers have decreased so as to 

 diminish the importance it had for years maintained. The 

 increased herring fishery which has followed, however, fully 

 compensates for the decline. 



