HERRING-FISHERIES ON THE COAST OF SWEDEN. 127 



Axel Boccl; who, in May, 1S70, visited the coast of Bohus-Liin for the 

 purpose of investigating the herring-fishery on that coast, maintains 

 that the herring which spawns there is " certainly only a coast-herring," 1 

 which, moreover, is distinguished from the "old herring' 7 by spawning 

 in spring, the latter spawning in autumn, and that it must be supposed 

 to have come from the North Sea, and possibly had some connection 

 with the Scotch-Dutch herring. 2 



G. von Yhlen, who, during five years' fishing, had abundant opportu- 

 nity for making observations on the matter, has, in his memorial of No- 

 vember 1G, 1870,3 addressed to the royal governors of Goteborgs-lan and 

 Bohus-lan, given the result of his own experience in the following two 

 assertions, viz : 1. That " that in none of those years had there been in 

 the schools of herring coming in from the sea any mature herring capa- 

 ble of propagating; that therefore they could not be herring spawning 

 in autumn like the so-called 'old herring;' and that ' the great mass of 

 herrings have not remained till the beginning of the spring-spawning 

 season ;" 2. " That the herring of one year differ in shape and size from 

 those of another," which observation is said to be "indisputable" and 

 " valuable." Von Yhlen thinks that he is able to verify by his observa- 

 tions the testimony of the fishermen made before the committee in 1833, 

 that the so-called sea-herring does not spawn on the coast of Bohus-Liin 

 and is not of the same breed as either th« coast-herring or the "old" 

 herring, as well as the assertions made by himself that the sea-herring 

 are not of the same breed each year, and do not come from the same 

 place, and that " they possibly may be young herring from various parts 

 of the Kattegat and Skagerack, which are drifted along by marine cur- 

 rents till those able to spawn go to their various spawning-places." 4 In 

 his report of 1870 on the salt-water fish of Bohus-lan, he says, further- 

 more, that as " herring have nowhere been found to spawn on the outer 

 coast," it would appear from this circumstance " that those herring 

 which in autumn showed themselves in such enormous numbers on the 

 outer coast, do not come from the small schools which are annually 

 found spawning in the fiords." 5 In his report for the preceding year he 

 supposes that the large number of sea-herring caught during that year 

 (90,800 bushels) came from yonng herring which migrated from the 

 fiords in September, 1867. 5 



. The fishermen of Bohus-lan, as was shown in the report on the herring- 

 fisheries, published in 1843, have distinguished several races of herring 

 by different names, most of which, however, only indicated differences 



1 Om Silclen og Sildefiskerierne. Ckristiania 1871, p, 126. 



2 Tidskrift for Fiskeri. V, p. 21-54. — Goteborgs oeh Bobus-liins Husballnings-Salls- 

 kaps Qvartalsskrift. October, 1870, p. 123-160. — Oni Silden og Sildefiskerierne, p. 121, 

 122, 126. 



3 Nya Handl. ror. Sillf., p. 11-17. 

 <Nya Handl. ror. Sillf., p. 12. 



5 Goteborgs ocb Bobus-liins Hushallnings-Siillskaps Qvartalsskrift, July, 1870, p. 16. 



