120 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ing year after year. It was, therefore, beyond a doubt that seine-fishing 

 was by no means so detrimental to the fisheries as was generally sup- 

 posed. That the seines brought up all the young herring, was entirely 

 unfounded, or, at any rate, but rarely the case ; and the small herring, 

 which are frequently caught toward the close of the fisheries, often con- 

 tain roe which has not been fully developed. He was informed at the 

 great-herring fisheries, and also saw for himself several localities, where 

 large masses of dead herring were said to be, at Selsovik, where, at the 

 bottom of the deep and narrow Gjeres inlet, between 10,000 and 15,000 

 tons were lying. The following year would show whether they had 

 decayed or not. 



In Sweden, the disappearance of the herring had been chiefly attrib- 

 uted to refuse of fish -oil which had been throwu into the sea. This had 

 formed a theme of discussion as far back as the middle of the last cen- 

 tury, and Professor Xilson had clearly stated the reasons which favor 

 this opinion. It will be seen that with regard to Bohuslan, his opinion 

 has met with much opposition, while just as many instances are given 

 tending to show that the refuse of fish-oil has no such injurious results. 

 Boeck has not been able to find that these heaps of refuse are so near 

 each other that the herring could find no suitable spawning-places 

 between them. Even if the refuse of fish-oil were the cause of the her- 

 ring's departure, this could not have been the case in former times, when 

 the herring disappeared from Bohuslan, as at that time there were no oil- 

 refineries either in Norway or in the Liinfjord, (in the north of Jutland.) 



Boeck's investigations therefore prove that all these causes, which have 

 been mentioned as being instrumental in driving the herring away at 

 different times from different places, either amount to nothing, or 

 have not held good in all cases. He endeavored himself to find causes 

 of the herring's disappearance which would better stand the test of 

 science, but for a long time sought in vain, till at last he thinks that, 

 through the study of history of the herring-fisheries, he has found reasons 

 that will hold good in all cases. During the first year of his stay at the 

 fishing-stations it occurred to him that the herring-fisheries, which formerly 

 had commenced much earlier in the season, sometimes even before 

 Christmas, had more recently beguu later in the year, and he was un- 

 able to find any special reasons for this. He also noticed that the herring- 

 fisheries were very unproductive near Skudesnres, where formerly they 

 had been very abundant, and that this could not be ascribed to storms 

 or to any other ordinary cause. In the following year the fisheries com- 

 menced still later, and in carefully examining this whole matter he found 

 that at the commencement of the fisheries in 1808 the herring approached 

 the coast in February, while during the following years it came earlier 

 every year, tillrecently it again came later and later in the season, until this 

 year it came at the end of February. In his work, " On the herring and her- 

 ring-fisheries,''- he has given the exact date for every year when the herring 

 approached the coast. From these dates it is seen that there is a certain 

 regularity in the time of the herring's approach, which is but slightly 



