Lars stayed on the island with his grandmother that winter. He went to a
larger and better school than the one in Hammerfest.
At first Lars thought, “How lonely I shall be when the days are short
and the nights are long.” To his surprise he found that the days with
little sunshine were the busiest days on the islands. Lars was on one of
the Lofoten islands where thousands of fishermen catch fish during the
time of the long nights.
Late in January the fishing boats began to arrive. Before many days
thousands of boats had come. The boats brought thousands and thousands
of fishermen. The huts along the coast were soon opened. The quiet spots
were now noisy with the chugging of boats and the voices of busy people.
Lars soon made friends with some fisher people. One old fisherman told
him many things that he wanted to know about the cod, for that is the
fish those fishermen came to Lofoten to catch.
[Illustration: FISH HUNG ON POLES TO DRY]
Why did the fishermen come at this time of the year? Were there no cod
in these waters in the summer? Those were questions Lars asked the old
fisherman.
Lars learned that the cod were great travelers. They had come from the
big Atlantic Ocean to reach the Lofoten Islands. Great numbers of cod
swim together. They reach those waters of the Lofoten late in January.
By the time the water is dark with the fish, the fishermen are ready to
begin their fishing.
But the waters in the Lofotens get many, many more fish than those which
come in from the Atlantic. It is in the waters of these islands that the
cod mothers lay the eggs from which baby cod are hatched. And millions
and millions of baby cod are hatched each year.
Lars watched some fishermen fastening a fishing line on the shore. The
line was a strong and heavy cord. Most of the lines used by the Lofoten
fishermen are five or six thousand feet long. The long fishing line is
held near the top of the water by corks which will not sink. The long
line is taken far out to sea by the boats. The end of the long line has
a heavy weight fastened to it. That weight is dropped into the water and
it holds the fishing line in the place that the fishermen want it. Short
lines are fastened to each long line. The short lines have hooks upon
them. More than a thousand hooks are dropped into the water from each
long fishing line.
[Illustration: THIS FISHING BOAT HAD A GOOD CATCH]
Some of the fishermen use nets instead of lines. They go out in boats to
set their nets.
Each morning the fishing boats with the fishermen go out to take the
fish off the hooks on the lines and to put more bait on the hooks, or to
empty the fish from the nets. Lars wanted to go out in the boat with his
friend, but the old fisherman said that fishing was too dangerous for a
young boy like Lars.
The fishing is so dangerous that the Government of Norway sends officers
to the islands every winter to help protect the fishermen. No fishing
boat is allowed to leave the shore to go to the lines or nets until the
officer gives the signal that the waters are safe. But in spite of the
help of the officers many lives are lost in those waters each year.
One morning Lars saw the flag which was the signal of the officer that
the sea was safe for the fishing boats. Then he saw the thousands of
boats start out to sea to look after the lines and nets. There were
rowboats, motor boats, steamboats, and sailboats. He could see the boats
far off the shores for hours as the men worked to load the fish they had
caught.
Five hundred fish is a good catch for a boat, but sometimes a boat
brings in a thousand cod at one haul. After a few days of fishing, fish
are everywhere on the islands. They hang on poles along the shore. They
lie stretched on the rocks. And everywhere is the smell of fish.
Lars watched the fishermen taking the livers out of the fish and boxing
them. He knew that many of the livers would be sent to Hammerfest where
he lived, and there they would be made into cod-liver oil.