THE NORWEGIAN HERRING-FISHERIES. 107 



the second time the severe cold in the north.* Kroyer thinks that if there 

 wereauy probability in this theory, the herring might justly be compared 

 to the Wandering Jew, who travels unceasingly without finding rest. 

 This theory, however, has not found many advocates outside of Amer- 

 ica,t aud is of no value since it has been proved that the American her- 

 ring is a species different from ours. 



Anderson's theory was violently attacked by Nilsson in 182G and 1828, 

 who, like Block, proved that the herring could not possible live deep 

 under the ice in the Polar Sea, and much less spawn, as the roe 

 would there miss the most essential conditions for its development, viz, 

 light aud warmth. Although the herring was seen to come from the 

 north, it need not necessarily come from the Polar Sea, as it could not 

 possibly travel the long distance of more than a thousand miles, as An- 

 derson maintained that it did. He showed, besides, that on the coasts 

 of Sweden there was found a great number of varieties, which never 

 leave that part of the sea where they are born, (such as the " Striim- 

 miug," which is found in the Gulf of Bothnia,) while farther toward the 

 south other varieties of the herring are found, those from the western 

 coast being easily distinguished from those of the southern. On the 

 coast of Norway, also, different species of herring are found, which 

 again differ from the Scotch and Dutch herring. Nilsson, therefore, 

 thought it beyond a doubt that the herring does not come from one 

 great common tribe, but that every race has its home outside that 

 coast where it goes to spawn; and that it has its regular dwelling-place 

 in the open sea near such coast. He thus thinks that the Gottenburg 

 herring, which came into the inlets of Bohuslau in such extraordinary 

 large numbers prior to the year 1808, aud of which, e. g., in the year 1870, 

 more than one and a half million tons were caught, (which, by the way, 

 was only a very insignificant portion of the whole mass of herring which 

 had gathered there,) has its permanent home in the Skagcrak, which is 

 neither very deep nor of very great extent. Ouvier and Valenciennes, 

 also, showed that on the northern coast of France, aud not far apart, 

 there were two such tribes of herring, each of which had its separate 

 home in certain basins of the open sea, and that these tribes never in- 

 termingled. Hunter is also able to show that there is on the coast of 

 Pomerania one tribe of herring which spawns in the autumn, and an- 

 other which spawns in the spring, differing greatly from each other, 

 although the basins of the sea near the coast where they live are 

 scarcely more than a mile apart. Another proof of the theory that 

 every race of herring has its special dwelling-place in the sea, which 

 it does not leave, except when it approaches the coast for the purpose 



* This " theory " was the result of a confusion of two very different fishes under the 

 same name — Culjpca harengus and Pomolohus pscudoharengus — one of which is the true 

 sea-herring, and the other an anadromous species whose ascent of the rivers coincides 

 with the advancing temperature of the new year, and therefore with the latitude — 

 S. F. B. 



t The only avowed advocate of the "theory" in America was the originator. — Ed. 



