Puslapio vaizdai
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TH

A Lapp Fishing Trip

BY J. B. CONNOLLY

HIS was up where the Norwegian coast-line begins to shoulder away to the easterly arctic. Made up of slabs of rock set on edge, and just enough of them bunched to entitle the whole thing to be set down on the chart as an island, with everywhere fissures which only the most agile of our Lapps dared to more than crawl around-and they were shod with clinging, strawstuffed moccasins,-there it was, fifteen miles or so from Hammerfest-good fishing and a handy market,-that this band of sea-Lapps had taken station for the summer to fish for sei, or whatever else might come their way, under the light of the midnight sun. It had the look of a place whereon the nimble mountaingoat would need to have a care as to how he cut his capers, provided, of course, that so shrewd a creature could ever be

induced to think that he might find there sufficient provender to keep him alive.

In half-rough weather a man had to watch out and pick his spot to leap ashore-here and there a bit of ledge breaking through the swash offered a chance. Forty or fifty feet above the sealine, well up on one of the higher perches, our Lapps had their shack, an arrangement that was roofed over with the meagre turf of the region, and sided in by boards that must have been washed onto their shores after long drifting, so old and battered did they look.

Within the outer door of this shack was a space that served for a storeroom, and cast in confusion on the floor and hung in any old way on the walls and from the roof, and all contributing to the appearance of disorder, were buoys, cans, kegs, nets, lines-the fishing-gear

not in immediate use,-with some dried fish, a tub of lard, and a few odd utensils of a household over which, plainly, no woman had for some time presided.

Beyond the inner door, which was hung on leather hinges and not quite plumb as to the hanging, was the livingroom. It was, possibly, fifteen feet on a side, and in each corner a bunk about five feet square and meant to accommodate four-for Lapps are neither tall nor bulky was raised clear of the floor by wooden props, with bedding made up of the skins of goat and reindeer, and of such of their own garments, goat and reindeer skin also, as they cared not to wear at the moment. Within that room dwelt our sixteen Lapps.

On one side of the room the wall space between the bunks was taken up by the door, but on each of the other three sides was a small window, to let in by way of the unwashed glass a shade of the light of heaven onto a narrow board that answered for a table, and so placed, with reference to the bunks, that the newly awakened had only to slide out feet first or roll broad on to find them

selves at once in a position to eat, with the bench-board affixed to the edge of the bunks forming the table-seats, which, polished by the friction of the tough deerskin tunics and trousers, shone most smoothly, except where they were marked by the work of bait-cutting, for which, and doubtless other service, there hung from each man's belt a knife in a deerhorn sheath.

In what was left of the room, a central space about five feet square, was the fireplace, elevated to a height of two feet on a bed of board, but with earth covering the wood. Five kettles, crusted to an ungauged depth of blackness, soot-hardened beyond reclamation, reposed on what must be called the hearth, and dangling down to them from the sooty rafters was a chain for cooking purposes. Encircling the walls of the room, above the bunks and little windows, was a line of shelving, on which reposed the rare household ware and the still more precious fishing-gear not yet baptizedhooks, hand-gaffs, thole-pins, corks, and

so on.

All the beams in the place were

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swathed in soot; and in this room, where sixteen men cooked, ate, slept, and talked long days away, one can imagine that there were times when the atmosphere suffered a change and took on dark hues; and as the floor was of earth and the rain came through the roof by way of an opening that was a chimney when it was not shut up tight, one may be able to imagine that there were also times when it was heavy going underfoot.

Outside in the free air, set up on the highest of all the rocky peaks of the island, was the lookout's tower-a square of small loosely piled stones, through the crevices of which the winds of the north might whistle and the arctic rains enter

if so it pleased them; and whoever was standing watch for the time took station therein and looked out onto the fiord for the schools of blackfish by which these people lived through the summer, and, while living, saved enough-sometimesto manage to exist through the long winter. All hands were more or less on watch when they were not sleeping. To look far out and scan the wind-whipped waters of the fiord seemed to be as natural an action as to tuck one's arms into one's bosom, hunch the shoulders, and draw a deep breath-but they slept a great deal, we judged, and the man watching up in the tower should of course be able to see the fish first.

It was after twelve o'clock on this July night that the lookout in the eyrie reported a school of sei coming across the fiord. We looked for ourselves, and we too saw the circling sea-gulls, and beneath them the elsewhere smooth surface of the fiord ruffled black like a tide-rip. The lookout's call of "Fish-O!" or some word that meant the same thing, assembled the loiterers on the rock and awoke the sleepers in the shack. There was no dressing. Some had to put on their caps and others their belts with the dangling knife, but that done, all was ready.

Four or five rushed up to get the brown-tanned net, which had been hanging up to dry, with a board roof for protection against the elements. Two of the men, spinning about like great tops or the dervishes in dime museums, but more slowly moving, wound the net around their shoulders; then, with two other men to take up the sag in the bight of it, and all making what speed they could, they stumbled down the rough declivities to the boats.

The boats, undecked, about thirty feet long, seven feet beam, and loose rock in the bottom for ballast, were clinkerbuilt, and after the models that have been handed down from Viking daysupcurved stem and stern-carved, decorated, and gilded. They were gaudily painted-green, blue, red, yellow, and the rest of the prismatic belt. One could easily believe that they would scud pretty well, but hardly that they would be the best boats in the world to drive by the wind in a gale; and looking at the frail build of them and then at the jagged coast-line all about, one would also prefer not to be running to harbor in them on a black winter's night.

Four boats, four men in each, go out together for the incoming school. All hands are rowing, each with as much as he can handle in one long clumsy oar. To the man who has no other occupation than to curl up in the bow and watch them, it seems that they are doing a lot of talking for people with business ahead. As we near the school, which is coming on leisurely, with the gulls still circling and screaming above, and every now and then diving, arising, and making off triumphant, the captain of the ex

pedition - rare - looking enough for a Lapp, because of a flowing beard with a curl to it-he is probably half Finn-begins to talk more than all the others together. But his speech is to some purpose-it seems to be orders that he is spitting out, for the men change the course slightly and row more earnestly and with less to say for themselves.

The net is in the captain's boat. He waves his arm toward one boat, and a man in that boat stops rowing and heaves the end of a line, which the captain makes fast to one corner of the net and drops overboard. A boat to the other side of them heaves the end of a line, and it likewise is given a corner, as also a moment later is the third boat. They row farther out then, drawing the net after them, and soon it is spread below the surface, with each boat making the corner of a square that is possibly a hundred feet on a side. The net itself seems to be seventy feet by sixty.

The fish come on, with everybody keeping quiet as they approach. To the captain's orders the boats again change direction, holding the corner lines taut always. All are rowing hard, and particularly the crew of the boat to windward, Lapps seem not to be of a race of gifted oarsmen, and there is an endless amount of deep digging and any amount of splashing. When the fish are almost in the right place the mouths of our fishermen begin to clench and their breath to come hard, for now they must not let the boats drift away.

These seem to be creatures not easily startled. Some fish would be off and into the wide Atlantic by now, but not these gentlemen. They come slowly but certainly. In the boats they are trying to keep quiet while the fish are getting within limits, and beyond the grinding of the oar - shafts between the tholepins and the splashing of the blades in the water, they are doing pretty well. At least they have stopped talking.

The sei push over the dead-line, and the men standing by the corner-lines begin to get nervous. But not yet. The captain warns them with uplifted arm, and low words that must be fine oaths in Lapp language,-which is not quite Norwegian, nor yet Swedish nor Finnish, but seemingly flavored with all three.

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