Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-02-20
TRAPPING sALMoN N NORWAY.
The Peasant Farmers Exc Out a mar"
sub.istcnce From the Fiords'


I'll. Peasant Farmers Exc Out haru
Subsistence From the fiords'
Thore is a very singular way of trapping
salmon on the Norwegian lords hoIe
arJ there as you pass along those great
,,,,,,,nI6cent lords, which cut deep INTO
tho heart Of Norway, you may-see SOIL
tarv figure porohcd upon sort OF spiuery'
sr,glIo looking timber lookout, ovefhhng
Inc Inc ford A week later, or month,
ns Won mass again, you may SEQ that Ionoly
foire. his eyes always bent upon the horu
benonth him, still keeping his watch
Tie mnp Is salmon catcher In ms
hands are a couple Of long ropes, connect.
"a with a net in the water below him, ana
dny after day he sits up there intehtly
watching until he secs salmon pass INTO
HE net The instant this great event nap
mems hauls sharply upon the ropes
closet me mouth Of the net and then eeO'
tInp into his boat, proceeds 10 pick up INC
salmon at his leisure.
lsio salmon thus caught are SOLD 70
son,o hotel upon the ford, Or sent with
otbors in leo to Bergen by tho next steam
or The fisherman gets from thteepenoe
10 sixpenco per pound for his catch-fonr'
penco is an average price-and even the
hard earned capture Of three or four sal.
mon a week procured at tho expense oil
long weary days OF watching means
good deal to these poor peasant farmers
with whom ready money is scarce com
modify.
Tho Norwegian peasant farmer is poor
man indeed. or ho would not betake him
self to so precarious and so monotonous
method Of adding to his soanty means,
Usually he has small patch of lnnd' a
few acrcs only-a nero garden spot
whore little soil lies vt the foot of the
rocky mountains that fioloso the ford, or
where the soil is always the richest
unon some old moralno, or in some open
valley formed by glaciers in ages OF the
past. Here he sows and roaps his tiny
crops and cuts his grass in August, max
ing hay OF it by hanging 1t upon tall hnr-
dies. His few cows and gonts are In the
byrcs during the long winter--half starved
moor creaturcs-and fed, more often than
not, upon dried boughs Of the abundant
birch tree. In June tho little tlocks and
herds emerge and arc driven up TO the
Snctcrs, mountain pastures, where the
girls Of tho tiny hamlet settle down IN
rudo huts cutie alone, make cheese and
live an luYlllC IllSlOIui illo AhtAA e@NifN'''
Der The farmer always makes his own
boats-you can buy in Norway a good,
roomy, Pine built boat for 50 shillings or
g2-and is us much fisherman and boat
man as farmer, as indeed arc oil his
family.
Tho farmers cat little or no meat fiat
hrod "a sort Of very inferior coarse oat
cako, made Of grain and potatoes), milk
cheese and fish suffice for tho Norwegian
and his family throughout the year Tho
catching Of u few salmon oach week, there
fore, during the summer is a matter Of
much Importance to the poorer of tho
peasant proprietors of this picturesque but
excessively barren country. Norway in
decd is nothing but u country of great
mountains pierced by the vast sea water
flords, and one exhibiting q few scanty
patches OF good land Its natives, perhaps
the hardest, simplest kindliest and most
honest folk now IN Europe, fare hard in
decd and their wants arc few and scanty.
/ Pail Mall Gazette.