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434 ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS,
nute defcription from me. “The dolphin is not unlike the mackarel, certainly not tri-
angular, as it appears, when fwimming, to the fpectators on firft view. Yee it differs
from it, as well in the colour as in the fize of the body; but the reafon of its appear-
ing triangular to the fpectators is, that gamboling in the fea, it can turn itfelf {fo into
folds, one part being under the water and the other above. The Laplanders
ufually kill them with mufkets, where it is to be well obferved by the hunter that
the bullets fhould be fhot a little before the dolphin rifes from the water, otherwife it
would from its gambols and turnings eafily efcape the gun. ‘This fifh is frequently
met with repofing carelefsly on the waters when the fea is calm. The Laplanders, as
well as the inhabitants of Norwegian Finmark, are very fond of the flefh and fat of the
dolphin.
The laree fkate (Jamia) in Norwegian Haa Skjerding, in Lapland Akkalagges, are not
found in any great numbers in this fea, This ikate is of an afh-colour along the back,
melining yet to a dark and black ; white belly : it is covered with a hard {km, ufually
has dark round eyes, wide mouth turned downwards, yet it is without bone, in the
place of which are cartilages or griftles eafy to be diflected. It has a very fat liver,
from which is fqueezed an abundance of oil, and befides fo large that one liver is
thought fufficient to fill a whole tun. In fome of them are found young ; but fo great
and infatiable is the gullet of this fifh, that the larger devour the fmaHer. kind,
as it appears from the following narrative—A certain Laplander from the bay of
Alten had once taken fome fkates of different fizes, and had gutted and faftened them
by a rope to the ftern of the veffel, with a view that, agreeably to the cuftom of the
country, he fhould prepare from them fome pieces, cailed in Norwegian Rav Rekling >
it fo happened that, of thofe he caught and that were floating at the ftern, he mifled
one, but could not account for it; foon after he took one much larger,-in whofe fto-
mach he found the one he had lately loft. ‘Thefe fifh are not only of an immenfe and
infatiable appetite, but even very injurious to fifhing nets, and all other pifeatory inftru-
ments which are ufed for the taking of the larger founders, and the various kinds of
codfifh, and all other fifh. ‘Fhey bruife and tear with their rough fkin and fharp
teeth not lefs the machines for taking them, than the fifh entangled and caught in
them. Yet it frequently happens, that thefe plunderers, the lefler particularly, become
themfelves, by this means, the booty of the fifhermen, entangled in the very nets which
they endeavour to tear afunder. The Laplanders catch them by a ftrong rope of twifted
hemp, to the end of which is faftened not only a ftone of no {mall weight, but even
an iron chain two cubits long, from which is fufpended alfo-an iron hook of extra-
ordinary fize, with the bait prepared from the putrid carcafes of dolphins. ‘The fithers
men, perceiving the fkate has fwallowed the hook and bait, fuddenly draws in the rope,
with his prey that is faft to it, with all his might, which if he did not immediately, the
fkate would firft devour the hook, then the iron chain, foon after the ftone, and at
length alfo part of the rope alfo-when flackened, and, cutting through the very thick rope
with the fharpnefs of his teeth, having deluded the fifherman, he would make off.
But getting him near the boat, they either beat him with a wooden cudgel, or,
having a knife at hand, adapted for the purpofe, they {tab him, or pierce and pull
him to death with an iron hock. ‘They then extract the liver, and throw the carcafe
into the fea or into the boat, and carry it home to be-cut up into pieces. In thofe places
where fifhing is carried on, the fifhermen take care that certain oblong veflels fhould be
let down into the fea, filled with the putrid entrails of falmon or dolphins, and covered
with the branches of trees, which, left they fhould be wafhed away by the ebb and flow
of the tide and waves, are preffed down with ftones, But by reafon of thefe a
veflels
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