Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/41

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and Stavanger are the only other cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants, and only eight more have over 10,000.

Farming and grazing have always been the chief industries of Norway and at present more than half the population are so engaged. In the south, where the valleys are broader, general farming is practised, but in the north the life of the farmer is hard. Here the only crops are potatoes and barley, and these are cultivated in the bits of soil oil the rocky mountain sides, even far north of the Arctic circle, indeed, it is said that the best potatoes are raised on Andö, one of the Vesteraalen Islands, at latitude 69°. Cattle are pastured in summer as far up the mountains as grass can he found, while every wisp of hay is gathered for winter use, not only on the lower levels, but among rocks and on slopes so steep that cattle could not find a foothold. Most of the calves are shipped, as comparatively few can be carried through the winter on the meager sustenance. Sheep and goats are raised but in small numbers.

Next to farming the chief industry of Norway is fishing, and in winter all the farmers living on the fjords become fishermen. The great center of the fishing industry is the Lofoten Islands, on the west coast, north of the Arctic circle. Here in winter and early spring assemble upwards of 40,000 fishermen from all of the fjords of western Norway, even from below Bergen. The fishing is chiefly in Vest-fjord, the broad, open body of water between the Lofotens and the mainland, for here the cod swarm in immense numbers. The fishermen scatter