The Land of the Long NightDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
General
The Land of the Long Night
Du Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
Lapland -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Then we rowed to a third buoy belonging to us and began hauling. Almost
every other hook had caught a fish. The faces of the fishermen were full
of happiness. They felt that on that day they would have a great catch,
when suddenly one of the men shouted, "Our line is entangled; I wonder
whether it has fouled a net or another line." But as we pulled in the
line we raised another line with it not belonging to us. We had a hard
time to separate them, but after nearly half an hour's work succeeded in
doing so. We had caught over two hundred cod on this line.
Our fourth line proved to be entangled in nets as well as also in
several lines belonging to different owners. The untwisting was
something awful, and it was no joke to separate them. Fortunately we
could tell to whom the lines belonged, for each one is marked from
distance to distance with the number of the boat and the letter of the
district from which the craft comes. The rest of the lines were so badly
tangled that we concluded to cut them. Then we pulled the cut pieces
with the fish on them into our boat, intending to give them to their
owners--not a difficult task, as the marks of ownership were on the
tackles--and if they belonged to another settlement the fish would be
sold and the money given them.
Captain Johansen and the crew thought the cod would remain two days
more. Their advance guard had passed, but a great deal of the shoal was
going northward; and there were miles of cod still to pass over the bank
upon which we fished.
The wind had been gradually rising. We had had two days of good weather,
and now the sea was covered with white caps. The daughters of AEgir and
Ran were all white-hooded. But as we sailed for home the wind suddenly
increased; squall after squall followed each other. We had to reef the
sail; the sea at times washed over us, and the poor fishermen began to
think seriously of throwing our cargo of fish overboard, for we were
pretty deeply loaded, but it would have been like throwing away money,
and they had worked so hard to get it.
A big black cloud overspread our heads and hail fell thickly upon us,
and it hurt us badly for the hailstones were hard and very big. I tried
to protect my face, for my sou'wester only protected well the back of my
head. The hail was succeeded by sleet, the rigging and mast were covered
with ice; our garments and sou'westers were stiff, and we looked like
big icy things. The captain, looking at me with a smile,--for he saw I
did not like this sort of weather, said: "This weather is the
forerunner of spring in these high latitudes; the sun is getting higher
at its meridian every day."
It was dark long before we reached port, but the men knew every rock on
the coast, and yonder was the lighthouse guiding us on our way. Boat
after boat entered the harbor, and not one of them was lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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