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Sweden and Norway: Lofoden

FISHERIES. One of the most important industries of Norway is the fisheries. The taking of herring is carried on in winter and autumn. In the winter about 50,000 men are employed, and the catch will average over 800,000 barrels for two months. Not so many are taken in the autumn. Off the Lofoden Islands and the coast of Finmark are the localities where the greatest number of cod are caught. In this branch of industry, in February and March, each year, about 20,000 men are employed, and the catch will average over

20,000,000 fish. The cod are remarkable for their size, being the largest fish of the kind. The foregoing figures relate to the catch off the Lofoden Islands. The Finmark cod fisheries yield from

12,000,000 to 18,000,000, but the fish are smaller than those of the Lofoden. On the S. coast of Norway many mackerel are caught. In the Arctic Ocean sharks are sought, the catch annually producing from 7000 to 8000 barrels of oil. Seal and walrus fishing is pursued off the coast of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. About 400,000 species a year is the reported result of the seal fishery. Lumbering, mining, and common trades, in addition to the fisheries, fill up the chief branches of the industries of Norway. Very little importance is to be attached to the manufactures. The leading articles produced are cotton, woolens, linens, and silks for home use. There are a few paper mills, distilleries, tobacco factories, and salt works.

GOVERNMENT.- While Norway and Sweden have a sovereign in common, the terms by which the two countries were united are such that it is "free, independent, indivisible, and inalienable." The government is an hereditary constitutional monarchy. The constitution was adopted in 1814, and vests the legislative authority in the storthing, which is an assembly of deputies chosen by indirect election. The storthing meets annually. It has two chambers, known as the lagthing and the odelsthing, consisting of one-fourth of the entire membership of the storthing. The king exercises the executive power through a council of state. With the consent of the council he can declare war, make peace, and conclude and abrogate treaties. He must pass some months of each year in Norway, and must be crowned as King of Norway at Trondhjem. The revenues are about $13,000,000 and the expenditures $

12,- 000,000. The public debt, $29,400,000.

HISTORY.-The authentic history of Norway begins with A. D. 863-933, when Harold Harfager, or Fair-Haired, subdued the petty kings and united the tribes as a nation. Olaf I., who came to the throne in 995, destroyed the pagan temples, and laid the foundations of Trondhjem. In 1028 Canute the Great of Denmark and England drove Olaf out, and became king. Then commenced a series of wars with Britain, followed by an invasion of Ireland. A warlike nation, they became noted for their prowess by water, and were a terror to the nations about them. In 1262 the national prosperity of Norway began to decline after the defeat of Haco V. at the mouth of the Clyde, and his subsequent death in the Orkneys. Wars with Denmark exhausted the country's resources, national industries were checked, and the plague broke out in 1348 and ravaged the kingdom for more than 2 years, destroying twothirds of the population, Centuries elapsed before this condition of decay was thrown off. The country not only lost its nationality, but also its proper language, which finally became a corrupt mixture of those of its neighbors. In 1380 the Crown descended to the son of Olaf III., King of Denmark, and from that period down to 1814 these 2 countries were united. Margaret succeeded her son Olaf III., reduced Sweden, and joined the 3 kingdoms under I monarch, under what is historically known as the "Union of Calmar." Gustavus Vasa severed this union with Sweden in 1523, and for 2 centuries Norway was scarcely more than a province of Denmark. About the beginning of the present century a better day dawned on Norway. After a series of dissensions and diplomatic complications, Russia, which had been engaged in warfare with Napoleon, indemnified Sweden for the loss of Finland-which on a former occasion Napoleon had signed away to Russia, without warrant-by the presentation of Norway, to which Sweden had no title. In 1814 the Danes acknowledged Norway as a dominion of Charles XIII. of Sweden, but a Danish prince, Christian, attempted to set up an independent sovereignty, but was compelled to abdicate, and on August 14th of the same year, Norway and Sweden were formally united, the ratification by the storthing settling the matter on the 20th of October. From this time the government became more and more liberal, titles of nobility were abolished, and the people styled citizens. In 1855 there was a good deal of anxiety felt over the encroachments of the Russian government, and Norway, Sweden, England, and France entered into an alliance in which "the two Scandinavian powers promised never to cede or sell territory to Russia, or to any other power, without the consent of England and France," and by this they received a guarantee of future territorial integrity under protection of the last named powers.

RUSSIA.

Emperor-Alexander III., b. March 10th, 1845; succeeded, March 13th, 1881; married, November 9th, 1866, Dagmar Marie Feodorovna, daughter of King Christian of Denmark, b. November 26th, 1847. Heir Apparent Grand Duke Nicolas, Czarevich, b. May 18th, 1868