ever, are put to other uses (manure, fodder, oil), partly. to the
diminution in the weight of the flesh, the salt drawing the water
out. While the flesh of a living cod contains about 70 per cent
water, salted cod contains 36.82 per cent water, and 15.5 per cent
salt. In the preparation of salted cod, the value of the fish rises
in the proportion of 100 to 142 or 143.
The preparation of salted cod was introduced by English merchants
in the 17th century, and has gradually outstripped that
undoubtedly very ancient product, t0rfish. In 1790, 216,000 cwt
of this product were prepared, from 1836 to 1840, .295,000 cwt,
and from 1887 to 1891, 335,000 cwt; while the corresponding-
quantities of klipfisk were 79,000, 197,000 and 917,000 cwt.
The preparation of torfisk is in the main more simple than
that of salted cod. When the fish is cleaned, and the head taken
off, it is hung, generally in pairs, by the tail to dry upon wooden
scaffolds, called' hjell (flakes). According to ancient rules, no fish
was to he'hung up after the 12th April, or be taken down before
the 12th June.
During the year 1897, there were exported:
Tefrfisk I Klipfisk
To Sweden . . . . . 2,320 tons To Spain . . . . . \ 28,450 tons
» I ta ly .& Austria . . 4,950 » I » Germany . . . . 8,720 »
» Holland . . . . . 8,500 » » Gt. Britain & Ireland 5,620 »
» Germany . . . . . 3,280 » » Italy . . . . . . 1,940 »
» Gt. Britain & Ireland 2,730 » » Portugal & Madeira. 2,450 »
I Kussia & Finland . . 850 »
» B e lg ium 170 »
A part of this export, however, was sent on farther from
the lands in question. Torfisk is exported almost exclusively from
Bergen, Trondhjem, Tromso and the towns in Einmarken; klipfisk
from Kristiansund, Bergen and Aalesund.
Among the secondary products, the liver oil takes an important
place. The greater part is prepared as cod-liver-oil by
exposing the liver to a jet of super-heated steam, which destroys
the liver cells, and causes the small drops of oil to run together. •
The fishermen themselves, in olden times, had made train oil by
letting the liver become rotten, or by melting it. Several sorts