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442 ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS,
devolving to the Laplanders, who by degrees got the habit of erecting weirs on the
river, each claimed that part of the ftream which he had from the beginning as his
lawful poffeflion, for him and his own for the future, belonging by full right and juft
title, to the total exclufion of all others from that place. The faid fifhery is at this day
carried on by peculiar regulations, fo that it is not permitted to every one to exercife it
at will. Thirty-fix men are annually chofen, who have the fole right, all others being
that year excluded of fifhery. ‘The perfons chofen are from the common people, Lap-
landers equally and peafants of the Finnifh nation, dwellers on the river. Thefe on
each bank of the river throw up mounds, from beams and boughs of trees, fit for the
keeping in and taking falmon. Thefe mounds are at due diftances from each other ;
four men, neither more nor lefs, being appointed to fifh within the limits of the faid
mound. ‘They run out as far as about the middle of the river, to the purpofe that the
falmon fhould have full liberty of pafling and re-pafling the ftream; and that thofe
whofe mounds are farther off from the mouth of the river, fhould not be defrauded of
their juft benefit; for if the river was laid over with mounds as with bridges, thofe
only whofe mounds were built on the lower part of the ftream doubtlefsly would enjoy
the whole benefit, to the total exclufion of their affociates from all hope of gain. The
mounds raifed and difpofed in this manner are at length fhut up by a dam, paffing from
the further to the hither fide of the bank, within which whatever falmon is taken is
common to the whole fociety of fifhermen. When, on the change of the year towards
autumn, all opportunity of fifhing has pafled by, the fifhermen to a man approach the
faid cataraét again{t the ftream, where the falmon that have efcaped the lower mounds
have penetrated, but who, on account of the cataract being in their way, cannot get
further. Here they let down their nets in the river, and drag them flowly all over the
bottom of it, as it.were by fweeping, to the mouth, where, loaden with a great quantity
of falmon, they draw them on fhore, to the great amufement of thofe who are pleafed
with this kind of fifhing. The falmon which are taken in each river, the Thana and
Alten, are managed ufually in the following manner: when cut through the middle
into two equal parts, well wafhed, they lie {prinkled with a fufficient quantity of falt for
fome days, afterward they are packed up in oak cafks, of a large fize, rammed down
clofely and firmly with certain machines ; brine is poured in through an orifice on the
cafk thus ftuffed, frefh and frefh every day, until all the muftinefs that floats above is
removed entirely, which is the duty enjoined chiefly on the cafk-maker. Salt of the very
belt quality mut be ufed in the falting and preferving falmon, which, unlefs attended to,
foreigners, who ufually purchafe the greateft part from them, will not buy of them.
The Kings of Denmark and Norway have given the greateft attention to the promoting
of the fifhery of Finmark. Chriftian IV., of moft glorious memory, by a royal decree,
figned May 4, 1638, ordered money to be fent into Finmark to promote the fifhery.
Chriftian V., by a decree, April 16, 1687, moft humanely decreed, that no one fhould
purchafe falmon from the fifhermen but in fpecie. At the clofe of autumn, when the
falmon becomes lean, and is no more faleable to merchants, the maritime Laplanders .
are accuftomed to row out a little from the fhore into the deep to take the falmon who
at this time of year remain immoyeable at the bottom of the fea, with an iron-headed
{pear, called in Lapland Har/es. The fifhermen employed in this bufinefs, left they
fhould be obftruéted by the darknefs of the night, keep a light in the prow of the veffel,
from pieces of fir-tree and the bark of the birch-tree, which they call Bara/. ‘The Lap-
landers keep the falmon taken in this manner as food for themfelves, and lay it up in
” chefts that are arched, and of a larger fize, which, if they ftand on legs, are called in
Lapland Nja/, but if not, Buorna. i =
e
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