A Problem of Borders and Fishermen
"The important salmon fisheries of the Tana very frequently set the fishers who live near one another at variance, and these quarrels are transferred to their governments."
From: 1806 C.E. To: 1808 C.E.
Location: Masjok, Norway
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Travels Through Norway and Lapland During the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808 by Leopold von Buch, 1815.
Thus, to the remotest boundaries of the country, the Finlanders or Quins live in fixed habitations: they have not merely penetrated into the country of the Laplanders; they have actually begun to surround it. They will at last proceed from the mouth of the Tana to cover the coasts of the Fiords, as in Altenfiord. The unfortunate race of Laplanders is driven higher and higher up the mountains, cut off from communication, and in some measure destroyed for want of subsistence. This is the fate of every people who set themselves against cultivation, and are surrounded by a people making a rapid progress in civilization. The cultivation of the wastes of Baraba in Siberia, and the wonderful growth of Kentucky and Tenessee in America, have in our times driven out nations of nomade shepherds, and extinguished almost the very names of many of them.
Though the boundaries of the two neighbouring kingdoms are now determined with geometrical accuracy, and though each of the countries knows very correctly from what Laplander or Quan it has a right to demand contributions, yet this has not been sufficient to remove every cause of dispute. The important salmon fisheries of the Tana very frequently set the fishers who live near one another at variance, and these quarrels are transferred to their governments. The large fat and very excellent salmon of the Tana was formerly an object of exportation from Finmark to Holland; and we often hear that the Dutch would not look on any other salmon after the usual cargo arrived from the Tana.
This trade has almost entirely ceased: there is now seldom more than fifty barrels of salmon exported from Goldholm, the trading place on the Tanafiord; for the inhabitants there now require the salmon for their own subsistence. They place their contrivances (stängsel) wherever they imagine the greatest number of fish will go, without concerning themselves about political boundaries. The Swedes catch their stores on the Norwegian Side, and the Norwegians frequently place, their stakes (stangen) on the Swedish side of the river.
If the person who is situated high up the river catches fewer, he complains that the person below him prevents the salmon from coming up. If the Norwegian has met with great success one year in a particular place, the Swede will endeavour to get the start of him the following year by placing his contrivances there. The Norwegians in the same way usurp the Swedish stations. The whole breadth of the river is frequently covered, and the salmon, according to the accounts of those higher up the river, are all caught at once.
On this subject the complaints have become very loud; they have already reached the central boards of audience of Stockholm and Copenhagen; and commissioners have more than once been dispatched to put an end to their differences. This might easily be done if two kingdoms were not concerned in the dispute. The excellent salmon regulations at Alten, by which each salmon fisher is shown where he is to set his net, and how far he is to go into the river, might easily be applied to the Tana.
But to effect this the Swedish and Danish commissioners must be agreed. The former reside in Tomeo, and their business brings them only in winter to Utsjocki. The Danish magistrate can seldom fall in with them, and he cannot always commit the business to a person capable of bringing it to a conclusion. The affair is of some importance for the province. If the salmon fishery has drawn the Quans down the Tana, the security of their employment cannot be a matter of indifference to them.
Von Buch, Leopold. Travels Through Norway and Lapland During the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808. H. Colburn. 1813.
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