HERRING-FISHERIES ON THE COAST OF SWEDEN. 125 



will probably have to be modified in future ones. I also hope tbat I 

 shall tben be able to make my report much more complete by means of 

 observations made on the coast of Norway, in the Kattegat, and in the 

 southern portion of the Baltic. 



I. — ON THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HERRING AND SMALL-HERRING. 



Even in olden times different races of herring were recognized, or at 

 least names were given to them designating different kinds, as the 

 idea of a variety or race was scarcely known to the traders and 

 fishermen, who by those different names only wished to distinguish one 

 article of trade from some other which was obtained at another place 

 or time, or was considered to have a different value. 



Among our Scandinavian naturalists, Linne was the first who de- 

 scribed a kind of herring called in Swedish "Stromming," [a sort of 

 small-herring,] as a separate species, under the name of Clupea liarengus 

 /? membra s. 1 



From Dr. P. DuWs observations on the herring -fishery of Bohus-Lan, 2 

 we learn that the Bohus-Lan fishermen, during the last great fishery, 

 distinguished the so-called " old" herring, (" gamla" sill,) as it is called 

 at present, as a " real sea-herring" ("rigtig hafssill") from the spring- 

 herring, which is peculiar to the coast, and belongs to it exclusively. 

 This last-mentioned herring was said to have a smaller head, to be 

 thicker and shorter, and to resemble the Kattegat herring. To judge 

 from an expression of 0. N. Loberg's, 3 the Norwegian herring-fishers 

 likewise make a distinction between the " sea-herring" (" Havsikl") and 

 the " fiord-herring," (" Fjordsteing.") 



Professor Nilsson, in the year 1832, distinguished, besides the " Strom- 

 ming," a large number of different races of herring from the southern and 

 western coasts of Sweden and Norway, all of which, however, he 

 grouped under two heads, viz : sea-herring (Hafssill) and coast-herring, 

 (Skargardssill.) 4 This division, which was somewhat modified by him 



1 Fauna Svecica. Ed. alt., p. 128. 



2 Kgl. Vet. Akad. Handl. f. 1817, p. 35, 44. 



8 Norges Fiskerier. Kristiania, 1864, p. 89, 90. 



4 Prodronius ichthyologies Scandinavian, p. 23, 24. As this work is very scarce, 

 and as the quotation is of special importance, it is given in full : 



Clupea liarengus Auctorurn. Svecis Sill. 



Suh hoc nomine latent plures species, vel, si mavis, varietates locales constantes, 

 quae in duas formas aptius aheunt : 



1-mo Forma oceanica (sea-herring) : capite, oculis et rictu minorihus ; orbita £- — ^ 

 longit. corp.; ventralibus sub anteriori £ pinnae dorsalis ; distantia arostro ad piunas 

 pectorales intervallum ajquante ventralium et ani, seu initii pinna? analis : 



1. oeresundica, Nostratibus Rabosill ( boundary-herring). 



2. schelderensis, Nostratibus Kullasill. 



3. mojalis, Nostratibus Grcissill (grass-herring). 



4. oalmsica, Nostratibus Aflingssill I. Storsill (great-herring). 



5. hiemalis, Nostratibus Norsk vintersill (Norwegian winter-herring). 



6. autumnalis, Nostratibus, Norsk liostsill (Norwegian fall-herring). 



