528 THE SHARK FISHERIES OP NORWAY. 
himself caught than ho spins round the line, and it is on tlie.se occasions 
that the line is liable to be severed by the sharp edges of the skin. The 
greatest celerity, at the same time, is requisite in hauling the tish to the 
surface, in order to check this rotatory movement. 
When the fish has been brought to the surface and alongside the 
boat, he is despatched by a sharp blow on the nose from a club, which 
must always be at hand ready for the occasion. The belly is then cut 
open, and the liver extracted, which done, a hole is made in the stomach, 
as described above, and the carcase allowed to float away, or, if near the 
land, is towed to the shore. 
It happens not unfrequently on these occasions that several sharks 
come to the surface of the water in the wake of the one hooked, and 
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 stern 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 forty to fifty barrels, the catch is esteemed 
a good one. Besides the liver, when the fish can be towed to the shore, 
the flesh is converted into food for the cattle, when a scarcity of dried 
fish-heads, which are prepared for that purpose, arises. 
It is occasionally used also for human food, but then as " rakliug," 
which is prepared by 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 edi- 
ble and fit for human food. It requires, however, an Arctic stomach to 
digest it. 
The basking shark, (Selache maximus), another of the genus, the 
largest of sea-fish, is found all along the coast from Ryvarden, latitude 
59° 31/ 35", up to Finmarken ; but in some localities it has become 
more rare than in others. 
This important and remunerative fishery was, a century ago, totally 
unknown. We first hear of its being carried on in the north of Norway, 
in the district of Namdal, round Hitteroen, and aj3 far south as 
Nordmor, about the year 1760. In the southern parts of the country it 
was at the same time pursued with great avidity and perseverance, and 
with such success as for a series of consecutive years to form the staple 
and chief support of the inhabitants of the districts in which it was 
carried on. Of late years, however, this shark has either been driven 
away from his then favourite haunts in the south, or their numbers 
have so far decreased as to diminish the importance it had for years 
maintained. The increased herring fishery which immediately followed 
fully compensated the decline. 
This shark differs from his fellows in not being a voracious fish ; 
consequently, is neither to be enticed nor caught by the same kind of 
bait, or mode of fishing as pursued with the Scymnus borealis, but 
