LIFE ON A FISHING STATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 11

LIFE ON A FISHING STATION.

IN AECTIC REGIONS,

To live for months and months without end upon a fishing station, situated off the coast of Norway, about sn inch away (on tho map) from the Arctic Circle, practically isolated from the mainland, is perhaps hardly a position ,that would bo Bought aftor with enthusiasm by many people. For that reason tho man or U'onian who -went there to take chargo of such a, station would be the one and ODly person, who would be suited to tho luo and its conditions, and there would bo very littlo chance of coming across the proverbial round peg in a square holo, Ui such a situation. Only the other day the writer had tho pleasure of mooting a lady; at present ( in New Zealand,' who had spent boiuu ' years in charge of the fishing station on the Sklinden Islands, which include Vigten and Vegen, a group that is in a direct lino with Iceland, further away. Upon her and her assistant devolved the caro and well-boing, physical and religious, of close upon four hundred fishermen, with, at that time, no other woman to assist them, and no doctor. The cod-fishing season etarta in Janaary, and tho men gather irem all over the mainland and collect upon these islands, Whore they livo in tiny little cabins of one room, fitted up with bunks, usually four* in each cabin, in which the men, eight to each bunk, sleep. With the windows tightly shut, as they usually are because of tho intenso cold, end with all their cooking done there as well, it may easily be imagined that tht> »tmosphere must be very dreadful. Strange to say, . whore an ordinary irian' would be , asphyxiated, those men are ontirely unaffected, even when sick, by such a condition. The cod-fishing season lasts usually HI March cr April,' and after that the halibut e?ason commonces nnd lasts for about as long. There was some talk of starting herring-fishing, but at tho time of leaving that had not yet been commenced. When ■ all the fishing is over tho men return to their homes, some of thorn, if the season has been goad, haying been fortunate enough to make sufficient to retire upon. Even' then, the call of the sea is too much' for them sometimes, and again and again they conio back, till only too often the sea claims its destined toll. The duty of the lady in chargo of the station, who. in this case was sent out by the-Friends' Mission, is largely medical, nnd religious. Owiag to their calling and their diet, die men suffer frequently from blood poisoning, skin disease, rheumatism, pneumonia, etc., and sometimes.tho hands of the missioner are verv full. On Sundays, they do not, as a rule, go out fishing, but spend the day very quietly attending meetings in the , Fishermen's Home, readIng and studying. Sometimes the Lutheran pastor from the mainland comes over and conducts services. The men are very fond of reading, and spend much/of their spare time, when'not mending nets, in reading thoir folktales, and Ibsen, Biornson,' and other. Norwegian writers. Captain Amundsen's "North-West Passage is- another groat favourite with them, as indeed are eny books of ■ exploration and adventure by sea. . . Naturally,' leading the lives that they So, in close touch with mighty elemental forces against whioh man is as helpless as a leaf in a gale, they are intensely superstitious. Tho sea and its depths . are peopled by strange,, uncanny creatures; premonitions ride tjhe air, the voica of the wind is sometimes filled with the wailing of those who have given up theii lives in the sea. Their imagination is keen and their natures are tuned to things of which *he land-dweller has no conception. Their calling is a hazardous .one, and full of hardship. Dense white fogs steal down from the Arctic rpgions, obliterating all things, and leaving them adrift in a formless world, ov at other times blizzards swoop upon them 'with wild fury till between the raging seao on the one hand and the intense cold on the other, their chances of reaching a Bafe haven appear but slight The signs of tho clcy are portents which are read with skilled, unerring eyos, and if they are disregarded it is not for want o'f knowledge.- -■ ■' : . • ..... : > ~-■■;.. Apart from■iitsclejrcndnTy-'history, sucha people could hardty be anything but Imaginative. In a land whero the sun shines at midnight, with a light that is _af brilliant as-day, so that one can read or write. or sketch, fish, or do anything one wished to do, and that at other times is wrapped in dim shadowy twilight and long hours of utter darkness, one could not expect to find a raco in whom the elemental forces about them have not left their traces.