HEEEING-FJSHEEIES ON THE COAST OF SWEDEN. 153 



herring, which were mostly sent to Sponvigen and pickled there. The 

 fisheries this year, however, were by no means as productive in the 

 boundary- waters of Sweden and Norway as they usually are. 



Small-herring were generally sold, during the autumn fisheries, for 

 from 56 cents to $1.40 a bushel. 



As the sea-herring greatly predominate on the southern coast, so do 

 the small-herring on the northern coast, where a successful haul of sea- 

 herring is considered a rarity. 1 Even among the largest hauls of sea- 

 herring on the northern coast, the small-herring were found in consider- 

 able numbers ; and, in 1843, the last year of the first half-century of the 

 great fisheries, (of which we possess without a doubt a faithful and reli- 

 able account,) it was estimated that about half the income from the fish- 

 eries came from the small-herring. 2 Wilhelm von Wright deserves great 

 credit for having first drawn attention to the importance of the small- 

 herring and its common appearance on the northern coast. 3 Professor 

 Nilsson, on the other hand, has so completely underestimated the im* 

 portance of the small-herring fisheries on the coast of Bohusliin that 

 he proposed, in order to prevent any sea-herring from being caught 

 among them, to forbid this fishery entirely, 4 or at least with any other 

 nets than drag-nets or stationary nets; 5 an opinion which, as is well 

 known, was shared by the Eoyal Academy of Sciences, and which, by 

 an ordinance of His Majesty of June 29, 1852, became a law. 6 



G. von Yhleri's opinion that those herring which have been caught in 

 good fish-years during the last sixty years, especially in 1812, 1817, 1831, 

 1840, and 1843, were, as far as he could ascertain, chiefly small-herring, 

 possibly mixed with some larger herring, 7 does not seem to me correct, 

 either as regards researches made by myself among old acts or as re- 

 gards information gleaned from old fishermen, all of whom maintained 

 that the sea-herring were those which appeared in the largest numbers 



1 Eeports on the Herring-Fisheries, pp. 101, 106 fr. 17. Professor Nilsson's and others 

 supposition that it is different, (Eeports on the Herring-Fisheries, pp. 55, 65 ; Ekstrom 

 Practical Essay, p. 29 ; note, New Eeports on the Herring-Fisheries, p. xiv,) and his 

 underestimate of the small-herring's importance and numbers created the belief on the 

 coast that our naturalists consider the small-herring to be only the young of the her- 

 riug proper. 



2 W. von Wriglii, Eeport on the Herring-Fisheries, p. 169 



3 Eeports on the Herring-Fisheries, pp. 167, 168, 169. 



4 Eeports on the Herring-Fisheries, p. 18. 



6 Ekstrom, Practical Essay, p. 112. Fdhrceus, 0. 1., Memorial regarding the Petition 

 of Several Fishermen in the Parish of Tanum to have the Eoyal Ordinance of June, 

 1852, changed ; presented November 9, 1853. 



5 New Eeport on the Herring-Fisheries, pp. ix, xv, xx, xxi. 0. 1.F&hraeus. Memo- 

 rial regarding the Petition of Several Fishermen in the Parish of Tanum to have the 

 Eoyal Ordinance of June, 1852, changed ; presented November 9, 1853. Letter of His 

 Majesty the King, dated February 25, 1855, to the Governors of Goteborg and Bohus- 

 lan, regarding certain regulations for makiug the fisheries on the coast of Bohuslan 

 more productive. New Eeport on the Herring-Fisheries, pp. 53, 59. 



7 Quarterly Journal of the Goteborg and Bohuslan Agricultural Society, July, 

 1867, p. 52 ; April, 1863, pp. 43, 44. New Eeport on the Herring-Fisheries, p. 11, 12. 



