second a grade lower, the third is intended for the stomachs of negroes, and the fourth, which is incapable of keeping, is used at home.

Dun fish are prepared in the following manner They are caught early in spring, and often in February. The cod are taken in deep water, split, and slack salted; then laid on a pile for two or three months in a dark store, covered for the greatest part of the time with salt hay, or grass, and pressed with some weight. In April or May they are opened and piled again as close as possible in the same dark store till July or August, when they are fit for use.

The cod sent to hot countries are packed by screw power into small casks called "drums;" those which go to the Mediterranean are usually exported in bulk. Large quantities of dried codfish are shipped to Brazil, and there is hardly an inhabited corner of that vast empire where the Newfoundland cod is not to be found, being carried on the backs of mules from the seacoast into the most distant provinces of the interior. The negroes of the West Indies welcome it as a grateful addition to their vegetable diet. To all parts of the Mediterranean it finds its way; Italians, Greeks, and Sicilians equally relishing the produce of the sea harvest. The Spaniards and Portuguese are our best customers, and all over the sunny peninsula the "bucalo " is a standing dish. In the warmer regions of the earth the people seem to have a special liking for the dried and salted cod, and to them it is an almost indispensable article of food.

The air bladder, or as it is called, cod's sound, which consists almost entirely of pure gelatine, sells at a high rate in any market into which it has been introduced. Cod's tongues and sounds form, even at present, a considerable

export from the ports of the States and the British-American colonies on the Atlantic.

Norway possesses a long and much-indented coast, which furnishes a large part of the fish consumed in England. The most valuable Norwegian fisheries are in the extreme north, near the Lofoden Islands, and within the Arctic circle. The great fisheries, and those of most interest to all Englishmen, are the deep-sea fisheries for cod and herrings, which constitute the most important branch of industry practised in Norway. The annual produce of these amounts to a million of money, and they give employment to from 20,000 to 30,000 men, and from 5000 to 6000 vessels. The cod are caught in two ways, with nets, in the English fashion, and with lines. The lines, or rather cables, are 1000 fathoms long, and are supported in each case by a buoy, and secured by anchors to prevent their drifting. Each line is furnished with 1200 hooks, at distances of five feet from each other, each hook being on a separate hookline of about a fathom in length. The lines are set at night and taken up in the morning. The fish are not salted, but are merely gutted and hung up in pairs upon poles, to be dried in the wind, and when thus cured they are exported in large quantities, under the name of round or stock-fish. The great cod fishery ends in April.

The number of cod caught in 1869 amounted to 20,700,000, of which about 12,000,000 were salted and prepared as klipfish (baccalau), and about 7,800,000 were hung up to dry as round-fish (stock-fish); the remainder, about 900,000, were cured for home consumption.

The produce of the fishery in 1870 consisted of 16,456,000 fish, equal to about 8800 tons when dried. Besides this, there were secured 21,500 barrels of cod oil, and 5000 barrels of cod roe.

The fishermen pay great attention to the curing. The fish is neatly packed in boxes with the fins trimmed off.

The extensive fishing bank which is periodically visited by the cod, stretches from Rost, a low group of islands forming the south-westernmost range of the Lofoden chain of islands, up to the very head of the West Fiord; a distance of about 70 English miles.

The number of boats engaged is nearly 6000, of which one-fifth have nets, and the remainder lines and deep-sea lines. The latter are of various lengths, supported on the surface by floats, with a buoy at each end. From this floating line, numerous baited lines are suspended at regular distances. There are also about 400 vessels of various kinds usually assembled, partly for fishing, but chiefly for purchasing fish as they are brought in.

The boats engaged in fishing with nets are from 36 to 40 feet long, and nine to ten feet wide, with a depth of not more than three feet. They are provided with only a single mast, about 24 feet high, carrying one large square sail. But each boat has as well 10 or 12 oars, by means of which her sturdy crew can propel her against an adverse wind. For fishing with lines, smaller ships, mostly boats, are used. The crew usually consist of five men and a boy.

In the month of December, the first shoals of cod usually begin to appear on the western banks of the islands, arriving from the open sea. These are soon followed by great masses of fish. But as these western outside shores are shallow, the ports few, and the whole coast exposed to the frequent fury of the North Sea, not more than from 600 to 800 boats venture on the hazards of this early fishing, and the take seldom exceeds 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 of fish.

D

In the mean time the inhabitants of the inner or eastern side, protected from northerly winds, and favoured with many bays of refuge, examine their shores day by day with baited hooks, to discover if the precursors of the dense shoals of cod have yet appeared in the West Fiord, and great is the public exultation when the joyful news of their arrival is announced. This important event takes place generally in the latter end of December, but not before the middle of January do the fish arrive in great masses.

Codfish are taken by the Lofoden fishermen by three methods: (1) with hand lines; (2) with set lines; and (3) with nets.

Hand lines requiring little capital and producing small results, are only employed by the poorest fishermen. These are satisfied with 50 fish to each man per day, although occasionally they will capture double that number. They bait with herrings, salt or fresh, and when these are all gone, with the roe of the fish they have caught. Sometimes, when the shoals of cod are very thick and dense, the men adopt another method also, with a single line requiring no bait. Providing themselves with a long cord, armed with a large and sharp hook at its extremity, they sink it into the swarming masses below, having first attached to it, a couple of feet above the hook, small fishes of tin, for the purpose of attracting the cod by their glitter. The fishermen then jerk the hook sharply upwards, occasionally securing a curious fish, though cruelly wounding many others that are not taken.

Set-line fishing requires larger apparatus: a boat, a crew, and from 500 to 3000 hooks baited at once. The hooks are attached to fine snoods of hemp or cotton, which in their turn are suspended on long lines; each boat puts out at least 24 of these lines, every line carrying more than

100 hooks. Set-line fishing usually begins in the afternoon, but in any case only at the time and in the place prescribed by the officers appointed at each station for the purpose. The baited hooks are generally suspended near the bottom, but if there is reason to believe that the fish have risen, as they sometimes will, the lines are shortened and the bait raised to the required height by means of glass floats. They are then left all night. On the following morning the lines are taken in, and the crews are well content with an average take of 50 to 60 fish daily on each set of 120 hooks.

Net fishing requires larger capital, and is only followed by the more wealthy fishermen, who provide both nets and lines, to be used according to circumstances.

When the fish are fat, and especially during the spawning season, they will hardly take any notice of the bait; then is the time the nets are used. Every boat carries at least 60 nets of from 10 to 20 fathoms deep. These nets are suspended in the water from floats of wood, cork, or glass. Hollow glass floats are preferred, and are almost exclusively used at Lofoden. Sixteen to 20 nets bound together in one length are set out in the afternoon, and, weather permitting, are taken up the following morning. A catch of from 500 to 600 cod is considered satisfactory; but if this number is largely exceeded, part are left in the nets till the afternoon, because the boats could not safely carry so heavy a freight, together with the crew and wet nets. The total take of cod by these various methods has ranged during the last few years from 15,000,000 to 25,000,000 of fish per

annum.

Although the cod fisheries of Lofoden are the largest. and most renowned, Norway has many others of great value along her far-stretching sea-board,