The produce of the Lofoden fisheries in 1871 was of klipfish 750,000 vogs, and of round-fish 340,000 vogs— the vog being about 44 lbs. This was equal to nearly 24,000 tons of codfish. The above take of fish yielded 31,000 barrels of oil, and 25,000 barrels of roes. On an average about 400 cod yield a barrel of liver, varying in price from £1 to £1 6s. 8d.

It appears that there is a great abundance of fish, especially cod, off the coast of Iceland, and that this fish is a set-off for the scanty agriculture of the island. The cod remain during winter near the coast, and the fishing commences during the spring; in summer, the fish are further out in deep water. Owing to the smallness of the population, the same persons attend to agriculture and to fishing. Taking the whole coast collectively, the winter and spring fishings give large fat cod, which are sold at the trading ports, and afterwards prepared for export; whereas the summer fishings usually yield small cod, haddock, cole-fish, and halibut, which are sorted and smoked for home consumption.

The Icelanders chiefly fish from open boats-seldom from decked ones. Their boats so vary in size as to range from two to 12 oars, with as many men as oars, and one to act as steersman. The boats have all projecting prows, are very easily rowed, and light in construction. As a rule they carry only one lugsail. The larger boats from six to 12 oars 12 oars are employed in the deeper fishings, often far out at sea. The fishing is effected by means of small drift-nets, deep-sea lines, hand lines, or long lines, according to the depth of water and the kind of fish. Fishing with the drift-net generally ceases about the middle of April, and is succeeded by the deep-sea or hand lines. The hooks used are generally the same as the French, but

some of the fishermen use the old Iceland hook, which is nearly 20 inches long. Fishing with the ordinary lines is carried on when the other two methods are no longer productive, and takes place all round the island. From one to four lengths of strong, thick line, each length measuring 60 fathoms, are spliced together, and vertical or hanging lines six feet in length are spliced into this at a distance of six or eight feet apart; a hook baited with snails or mussels is fastened to the end of each hanging line. The hooks used are the ordinary tinned English No. 5. A boat carries from 20 to 40 such lines, which are sunk to the bottom by means of stone weights; their position is indicated by buoy-ropes kept up by small floating barrels marked with the owner's name. The lines are placed across the entrance of bays and rivers, or sometimes at the outside of them, and are taken up twice or thrice a day, according as the weather permits. As many as 80 of these long-line boats may sometimes be seen collected together, busy fishing from three to four miles off the coast.

Line fishing is conducted in Iceland on a much more limited scale than at Newfoundland, in relation both to the size of the boats and the length of the lines. This arises, not from the scarcity of the fish, but from the poverty of the people, which prevents them from obtaining the requisites necessary for larger operations. The fish are packed for export sale in many ways. In order to obtain what are called white fish, the fish are opened, gutted, cleansed, and partially boned, then washed in sea water and placed in salt. After three or four days' salting they are washed in sea water and laid out on the rock to dry; they are then ready to be packed in warehouses for shipment on suitable opportunity. This is, of course, dried

salt cod. Another fish for home consumption is the heinge fish, in which the cod are split up along the back and hung up unsalted to dry in sheds with open latticed sides. This second kind is more shrivelled up in appearance than the first, and is eaten uncooked by the Icelanders, who likewise dry and eat the refuse heads.

Somehow or other we have let the French forestall us in that quarter. The French fishermen catch more in the Iceland seas than the Icelanders themselves, and carry away to France as much cod as is worth 6,725,000 francs a year (£270,000). The abundance of fish in the Iceland seas attracted fishermen from many other countries; but, for some reason not easily to be explained, the French are now the only foreigners who carry on the fishing largely. Some few Belgians are occasionally seen, and a few Scotch fishermen from the Shetlands, but their number is insignificant. The Danish Government, to which Iceland belongs, lays down certain limits within which foreign fishing-boats may not approach the shore; but collisions unfortunately occur between those who carry on the line fishing, because the French, when driven by the weather or by the movements of the shoal, come within the prohibited limits, then entanglements of gear result, followed by quarrels. The French fishermen usually have a fleet of 250 vessels there in the season, averaging 90 tons, and worked by 4400 men. These vessels are mostly schooner-rigged. Although the native boats are nearly ten times as numerous, and the crews twice as many, the French catch more cod than the Icelanders, for the majority of the native craft are, as we have said, mere small open boats. The quantity caught altogether must be very large, for the Icelanders alone export 5,000,000 lbs. to 7,000,000 lbs. annually. The average number of French vessels employed in the cod

fishery in Newfoundland and Iceland in the three years. ending with 1860 was 500, of about 65,000 tons, and employing 14,000 to 15,000 men.

The produce imported into France in 1860, which was a fair average of the five years previous, was as follows:

The codfish re-exported to the various French colonies, to Italy, and the Barbary States, varies from 3,000,000 to 9,000,000 kilogrammes.

The average catch of cod in the French colonies of St. Pierre and Miquelon, according to the official returns, was for the five years ending 1871 :

There were employed in the fishery, directly or indirectly, 194 vessels, of 30,561 tons, employing 3439 men. The number of boats was 673, and the number of fishermen 5773

The number of French vessels employed in 1873 in the cod fisheries was-in Newfoundland 190, of 23,035 tons, and in Iceland 230 of 19,585 tons.

The average annual produce of the French cod fishery

in the five years ending 1874 was :

The kilogramme is equal to 23 lbs.

The number of ships employed at St. Pierre and Miquelon in the cod fishery is 76, and of boats 590; the aggregate tonnage, 12,386. The number of fishermen employed in them is 5335. These figures are the average of the five years ending 1874.

The imports of cod into the French colonies in 1874 were as follows:

This shows a declining consumption, judging by the average imports for the undermentioned years in the five colonies: