FROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. 



127 



produce of the fisheries. But (as with all useful inventions) loud complaints 

 were raised against him in Norway, and as late as 1762 no nets were allowed 

 at Drontheim, " to prevent the ruin of the poor people who had not the capital 

 to provide themselves with them." 



The life of a fisherman is everywhere full of privations and dangers, but no- 

 where more so than at the Lofoten Islands. Here, after toiling on the stormy 

 sea for many hours, he has nothing but the miserable shelter of a damp, filthy, 

 over-crowded hut, which affords him neither the rest nor the warmth needed 

 after his fatiguing day's work. Even the iron-framed sons of the North are 

 frequently unable to resist such continuous hardships, and bring home with 

 them the seeds of contagion and death. Malignant fevers have frequently dec- 

 imated the population of Norway, and their origin may generally be traced to 



THE DOVREFJELD. 



the fishing-grounds. " The Arab and the Persian," says Leopold von Buch, 

 " build caravanseras for the w^ayfarers through the desert ; the inhabitants of 

 the Alps have founded ' hospices ' on the summits of the mountain passes ; and 

 the Norwegian has erected houses of refuge on Dovrefjeld, but none for the 

 fishermen of Lofoten. Near Rodoe there is a large hospital for the sick of 

 Nordland ; would it not be as well to build houses in Lofoten, so as not to 

 crowd the hospitals and churchyards ?" This was written at the beginning of 

 the present century, but the poor fishermen are still as neglected as ever, for a 

 more recent traveller, Marmier, beheld with pity the wretched huts in which 

 they spend three winter months far from their families. 



In the channel between Hvalo and the mainland lies, in 69° 45' N. lat, the 



