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ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS. 44%
ties itfelf into the fea, from the bay of Thana, with a great noife of waters. Among
the fmaller rivers, by whofe courfe it is increafed, that is confpicuous, which flows be-
tween Thana and Waranger, formerly abounding in beavers and pearls, as appears from
the protocol of a judicial meeting held on the tenth of February of the year 1652, where
the {pecial care of this river is fpecified, as enjoined on the Laplanders. But this river
Thana, which you may properly call the principal river of eaftern Finmark, though it
is diftant fome miles from the ocean, yet the marks of that great tide, and rapidity with
which it flows, efpecially in fpring, when it is fwelled with an uncommon thaw, can
eafily be remarked in the fea at a diftance from the fhore. ‘The falmon taken in this
river differ much from thofe that come into other rivers, in breadth, fhortnefs, and fat-
nefs, and are accounted the very beft of theirkind. The fithing for them begins in this
river in the beginning of {pring, and ends again two weeks after the feftival of St. John
the Baptift. .
The river Alten is the moft celebrated river of all thofe that run through the weftern
Finmark. It alfo has its rife in the remoteft mountains of Lapland, running down
through woods and mountains in a channel, until getting into the interior recefs of the
bay of Alten, it rolls itfelf into the fea. ‘This river carries along its waters fo calmly
and gently, that from its very mouth, where it empties itfelf into the fea, to a high and
fteep rock, over which rolling itfelf with the great noife of its waters, it makes an im-
menfe catara&t, it is navigable fora fpace of fix miles for fifhing boats and {mall craft.
In this fifhy river fo large a quantity of moft excellent falmon is taken, as would be
fufficient for filling a hundred, fometimes two hundred tuns. The falmon which are
caught about the feftival of St. John, at which time we ftated that fifhing began in this
river, are very fat, and befides of fuch a fize, that a full tun can {carce hold fixteen of
them ; but thofe which enter this river when the autumn is approaching, are much lefs
than the former, and at the fame time lean. Dolphins are fometimes feen in this river,
lying in wait for the falmon ftruggling along the ftream. ‘The royal governor of this
province, the illuftrious Claudius Gagge, is faid to be the firft who undertook to build
weirs on this river, for the catching of falmon. This example was afterwards followed
with the greateft fuccefs. This happened, it is faid, on the eleventh year of the feven-
teenth century, when the royal houfe, as it is called, Aar Den, was built on an ifland
of the bay of Alten, on account of the war then carrying on between the Danes and the
neighbouring Swedes. ‘Ghere was then, as well as now, an entire free right of fifhery
on the fame river, and free permiffion granted to each, without any tribute being im-
pofed; but afterwards it was let out on certain conditions, at a yearly return of two
hundred. thalers; firft to the Dutch, then to a fociety of merchants at Copenhagen ;
afterwards to certain merchants of Bergen, in Norway, who undertook to erect and
preferve weirs on the river at their own expence. Among thefe the chief were citizens
of Bergen, who fhut up the river Alten with an expenfive and fumptuous work, a
number of workmen being hired at a daily ftipend, who at a ftated time fhould every
year diligently work for fifteen days together. Befides fixteen pounds of filh (valued
at fifteen pence of our money), which together with board, and a quantity of brandy
were diftributed to each workman as his daily hire, fo many pounds of fith being
added at the end of each week. ‘Iwo: tons of beer, of Bergen, when the work was
finifhed, were collected for the whole body of the workmen ; two quantities of eighteen
hundred pounds weight of fifth, worth fifty thalers. So great was the expence at which
the inhabitants of Bergen {tood to the feventy-feventh year of the feventeenth century,
at which time laying afide all further experice, they thought it better to purchafe falmon
from the Laplanders themfelves, who dwell by the fide of the river. ‘The fifhery then
VOL. I. 3.1L devolving
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