118 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



were very abundant, the herring left when eight men-of-war anchored 

 there, and this only because the ship-bells were rang every evening, all 

 shooting having been forbidden. He adds that the cause of the her- 

 ring's disappearance in 1808 was the constant noise in the salting-houses, 

 produced by the manufacture of barrels, and by other work, all the harbor 

 being full of ships and boats waiting for their cargoes of herring, the 

 whole coast and all the islands swarming with people of every age and 

 sex, who had gathered there for the sake of earning money. In the 

 evening there was music and dancing in the fishing-places, and therefore 

 Nilsson says it was no wonder that the herring left. 



In Norway the herring does not seem to be so much disturbed by 

 noise, but other causes of its disappearance are given. In Flaekkefjord 

 people thought the cause of the herring's departure in 1S59 was the 

 strong glare of the List light-house. In other places, however, there was 

 no objection to light-houses ; while in Utsire it was even thought that 

 the fisheries began to be very abundant just about the time when the 

 light-houses were erected, the herring, as they supposed, being attracted 

 by the light. The opinion that light-houses have any influence on the 

 herring's appearance or disappearance has now been entirely abandoned. 

 Formerly many supposed that the bad odor spreading over the sea from 

 the burning of sea-weeds caused the herring to leave, and in many 

 places laws were demanded forbidding the act. The burners of sea- 

 weed, however, were of a different opinion, as well as the owners of 

 glass-houses, who used the burnt sea- weed. Professor Eathke was com- 

 missioned to examine this matter, and he found that the herring had 

 left places where sea-weeds had never been burned, and continued in 

 others where sea-weeds were burned constantly. It has also been said 

 that the cuttle-fish was a cause of the herring's disappearance, but 

 Boeck has never found a single cuttle-fish in the southern fisheries, 

 while he saw large numbers of them near Langences, and many instances 

 were related how the cuttle-fish loved to pursue the herring; but in no 

 instance could it be proved that it had ever driven away even the small- 

 est school. 



At one time it was supposed that impurities at the bottom of the sea 

 had an influence on the herring- fisheries, and that the herring avoided 

 those places where many impurities were found, because they were unfa- 

 vorable to the development of the spawn. Such impurities were gen- 

 erally produced by employing imperfect fishing-implements, which left 

 greater or less masses of herring at the bottom, and also by various 

 kinds of refuse being thrown into the sea, which might make it unfit 

 for spawning. On the coast of Norway the former opinion was quite 

 prevalent, it being maintained that in seine-fishing great quantities of 

 dead herring were left in the water. Boeck, during his first stay at the 

 fishing-stations, had his attention directed to this. He also saw that 

 the nets with narrow meshes, which the fishermen have recently begun 

 to use, did not permit larger herring to put the whole head through the 



