HERRING-FISHERIES ON THE COAST OF SWEDEN. 147' 



smaller, and is more like the variety Schoneveldi Kr. than those which 

 I saw caught on the northern coast toward the end of last year. 



It is said that the young of the small-herring begin to show them- 

 selves in the northernmost portion of the coast about midsummer, or in 

 the beginning of July. I cannot give auy information gathered from 

 other persons, as to how rapidly the small herring grows, and how old 

 it is when it spawns for the first time ; and the observations made by 

 myself are still too few and incomplete to draw from them any accurate 

 conclusion. But as I have, in the mean time, received from Kalfsund 

 small-herring, measuring not quite 100 millimeters, (96-97,) whose sex- 

 ual organs were considerably developed ; and as most of those which I 

 procured at Tjorn during May, and which were capable of spawning, 

 only measured from 100 to 110 millimeters, it seems to me not improb- 

 able that the small-herring can spawn for the first time when it is two 

 years old j although I believe that this is by no means the case with all 

 the fish born during the same season. The largest small herring which 

 I could get measured 149 millimeters, but even specimens measuring 

 140 millimeters are very rare. 



III. — OF THE HERRING'S AND SMALL-HERRING'S MODE OF LIFE ; ITS MI- 

 GRATIONS, AND THE DEPENDENCE OF THESE LATTER ON METEOR- 

 OLOGIC AND HYDROGEAPHIC CIRCUMSTANCES. 



As I was able to make but few personal observations on these points, 

 I endeavored to ascertain from experienced fishermen on the coast what 

 they had observed, and then compared their observations with all the 

 literature on the subject which was accessible to me, in order to find how 

 far discrepancies existed. 



The herring and small-herring are usually found in separate schools 

 and do not intermingle. They seem not to get on well together, and 

 must be considered rather as enemies of each other. If, therefore, her- 

 ring are caught in auy considerable numbers during the small-herring 

 fisheries, it is considered an unfavorable omen. When the larger spring- 

 herring goes to its spawning-places in great schools, it is not generally 

 found consorting with any small-herring. 1 The large herring is con- 

 sidered dangerous to the young-herring, 2 and is said, when found in any 

 large numbers, to drive away all the other herring, and is therefore dis- 

 liked by fishermen on the northern coast. 



In seine-fishing, the herring generally seems to be very much afraid 

 of the seine, 3 and cannot often be caught in this manner. The differ- 

 ent degrees of clearness of the water plays an important part in this 

 operation, and seiue-fishiug by daytime can, at present, be carried on 

 only on the southern coast, where the more turbid water from the rivers* 



1 Report on the Herring-Fisheries, p. Ill fr. 8. 



*Ekstrdm, Review of Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 1846, p. 20. 



3 H. Easch and B. If. Berg, Memorial and Petition, pp. 10, 33. 



4 F. Ekman, On the Sea-Water on the Coast of Bohusliin, p. 25. 



