THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INDUSTRIES
The greater number of the people are country-folk, who gain a
living by farming, timber-working, or, when living near the sea,
by fishing. Then there are a certain number of men who are soldiers
by profession, and more still who are sailors--not fighting sailors,
but serving on board the 8,000 merchant vessels which Norway possesses.
Everyone who lives in a Norwegian town is connected one way or
another with some sort of trade or profession; and, of course, in
the seaports there are always ships coming and going, unloading and
loading, and so providing plenty of work for a great many men. In
the towns also there are, as in every civilized town, men who follow
regular professions--clergymen, merchants, bankers, lawyers, doctors,
hotel-keepers, shop-keepers, and others, as well as Government
officials, learned professors, literary men, and artists.
As a nation Norway cannot be considered wealthy, but the fact that she
employs so many ships for trading purposes is perhaps a proof that she
is fairly prosperous. There are few really rich Norwegians, and still
fewer who are able to live as independent gentlemen on their estates;
no man can claim the right to be called noble, for the nobility of
the country was abolished by law nearly a century ago, and since
then equality has been the birthright of every Norseman. But no one
can prevent money made in trade gradually finding its way into the
pockets of a few capable men of business, and thus class distinctions
must be created. The majority of the Norwegians, however, are content
to work and earn sufficient to maintain themselves and their families
in fairly comfortable circumstances, and fortunately the products of
the country enable them to do so.
The forests, covering as they do almost one-fourth of the area of
Norway, are of immense value, and the timber trade is a source of
income to a great number of the people. Much of it, of course, is used
in the country itself, as the houses and bridges are mostly built of
wood; but there is plenty left to be exported to England and other
foreign countries, as anyone who visits the ports in the South of
Norway can judge for himself. Between Christiansand and Christiania,
for instance, one may see enormous stores of timber awaiting shipment,
and one wonders how it will ever be shipped. Then, travelling among
the forest-clad mountains, one finds the woodman busy with his axe,
and the great bare tree-trunks being hauled down to the banks of the
torrent or river, so as to float on the waters to the low country,
and thence even to the sea-coast. Again, on lakes like the Randsfjord,
the sight presented by the gathered logs, which have floated down
from the mountains, and which are being rafted for their final voyage,
is an extraordinary one. Acres and acres of floating timber cover the
end of the lake, and the massive trunks are packed so close that you
might wander about on them at your will for hours.
But it is not only timber in a raw state that does so much for the
prosperity of Norway, for a great trade is done also in matches as
well as in wood-pulp. The latter is a comparatively modern industry,
and its development has been rapid. Anyone who visits Christiania
and has the opportunity of taking the little town of Hönefos in his
travels, should not fail to pay a visit to the pulping works. It is
said that in Chicago one may see a herd of swine driven in at the
front gate of a factory and brought out at another gate in the form
of sausages. At Hönefos trees go into the works and come out as paper,
or very nearly so.
The waterfall, which gave a name to the place, is at the meeting
of two rivers--one flowing from Spirillen Lake and the other from
the Randsfjord, and was at one time beautiful. Now, however, its
picturesqueness is marred by the presence of a barn-like structure
containing the pulping works, while the fall itself is utilized
to drive the machinery. And, it must be confessed, all this has
been brought about by an Englishman, for here at Hönefos is made
the paper upon which is printed _Lloyd's Weekly_ and the _Daily
Chronicle_. Neither is the fact concealed, but rather boasted of in
large letters on the outside of the barn. But Norway can well spare
this one scrap from its storehouse of scenery, and the works find
regular employment for upwards of a hundred Norwegians.
The process of pulping is simplicity itself; the trees are felled in
the forests on the hillsides close by, and sawn into blocks. Aerial
wires stretch from the felling ground to the works, and the blocks
come swinging down in baskets, to be handed over forthwith to the
mercy of the machinery. With the aid of heavy crushers and a certain
amount of water the logs are soon reduced to pulp, which then floats
away into sifters, to be eventually rolled out into flat sheets.
An immense amount of this pulp is exported to England in sacks,
and is used for many other purposes besides paper-making.
Another thing which we get from Norway is ice. Most of those huge
blocks of ice which you see in the fishmongers' shops in the summer
have come across the North Sea, and ice-cutting is a very important
business in the winter months. The ice is obtained principally from the
mountain lakes, and in the vicinity of Christiania long wooden chutes
are erected from the mountain-tops to the edge of the fjord. Down
these the huge cubes travel, direct from their homes to the deck of
the boat, and thus save the cost of overland transport. They are sawn
most carefully, the dimensions being about two feet each way; rope
handles are then frozen into the blocks for facility of movement,
and the cubes are stored in ice-houses until the summer, by which
time they have lost almost half their original weight.
Next to timber, the chief export from the country is fish (including
cod-liver oil). The great fisheries are round the Lofödden Islands
on the North-West Coast, well within the Arctic Circle, and it
is estimated that some 30,000 men and 6,000 boats are engaged in
capturing the cod from January to April each year. The fishermen
assemble from far and wide, and take up their residence for the
season in temporary huts, clustered together on the shores of the
islands. The work is arduous as well as dangerous, for storms and
heavy seas are of frequent occurrence, and tides and currents among
the islands most treacherous. And here, close to the fisheries,
is situated the dreaded whirlpool, the Mælstrom of renown.
But it is the people's living, and in a favourable season they make
immense hauls. An ordinary catch for an ordinary day is 500 cod per
boat, and a good day will double that number, though in such a case
the boat has to make a second trip to bring the fish ashore. A simple
calculation will show that millions of cod are landed on the islands
every day. Imagine the sight and imagine the smell!
The fish are split open and, after the roe and the liver have
been removed, hung up on hurdles to dry. Some are sold to the
fishing-smacks, which come to the islands to buy the fresh fish, and
then salt it down in barrels, or take it away to dry elsewhere. Scores
of bundles of dried cod, looking like slips of leather, may be seen
for the remainder of the year on every wharf in Norway. Who eats it
all is a mystery; but it goes to England and Spain in large quantities,
and most of us have eaten it on Ash Wednesdays.
Cod's roe and liver are probably of more value than the fish from
which they are extracted, and there are large factories for making
cod-liver oil, not only at the Loföddens, but also at other places
on the coast. At Hammerfest, which boasts of being the northernmost
town in the world, the whole air is laden with the nauseous fumes
issuing from the steaming caldrons of boiling cod-liver oil.
The fish trade of Norway is not, however, confined to cod and the
Lofödden Isles, for in many other parts fishing is the chief industry
of the people, and hundreds of thousands of barrels of salted herrings
and sprats leave the country every year, while sardines and anchovies
are tinned or potted in the factories at Stavanger and other large
seaports. The salmon, also, for which the Norwegian rivers are famous,
are brought over to England packed in ice, and well repay the owners
of the rivers.
Even in the depth of winter a good deal of sea fishing goes on through
the ice of the frozen fjords. The fisherman erects a shelter of some
kind to protect him from the biting wind, and within view of this he
breaks two or three holes in the thick ice. In each hole his baited
hooks are dropped down, the other end of the line being fastened
to a simple contrivance of pieces of stick, which begin to waggle
when a fish is hooked. On the Christiania Fjord numbers of these
sporting fishermen are to be seen at work all through the winter,
and judging by the frequency of their visits to their different holes,
they must take a quantity of fish. It is cold work, however, sitting
and watching for the signal to come from the hole, and one cannot
help admiring the men's energy and keenness.
It is only natural that, living in a country where fish is so
plentiful, the people themselves should be great fish-eaters, and
the daily fish-markets at Bergen and other places on the coast are
most interesting sights. As a rule the fish are brought to market
alive in half-sunken canoes, towed astern of the fishing-boats,
and at Bergen all the bargaining is done between the buyers on the
quayside and the sellers in their boats.
In proportion to the population the variety of occupations in Norway is
certainly great, and there are other industries besides those already
mentioned. There is, for example, a considerable trade in skins
and furs, in condensed milk, butter, and margarine, and in certain
minerals and chemicals. Employment is found also for many men on the
railways--in road-making, in boat and shipbuilding, in timber-dressing,
in mechanical engineering, in slate-quarrying, in stone-cutting,
and in mining (principally in the silver mines at Köngsberg).
It would seem, therefore, as if there were plenty of work for the
Norwegians to do, and they are willing workers. Abject poverty, as
we know the term, has no place in Norway at present, for the country
can support its people, thanks, perhaps, to the fact that the desire
to emigrate to America and Canada is strong.