184 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



chiefly to be accounted for by tbe difference of food in the Atlantic, 

 the Kattegat, and the Baltic, differing even in different parts of tbe 

 Atlantic and tbe Baltic. We find, therefore, that every part of the sea, 

 and even different bays, have, so to speak'their own peculiar kind of 

 herring, which certainly do not belong to a different family, but which, 

 nevertheless, can easily be distinguished as belonging to a different 

 kind, by certain peculiarities due to the locality. Thus, there is found, 

 e. g., at certain seasons of the year, in some bays of tbe Baltic, a larger 

 kind of herring, which can easily be distinguished from that which lives 

 and spawns on the outer portion of the coast; and the herring found on 

 the coast of Bobuslau, (the west coast of Sweden,) and in the bay of 

 Christiania, differ greatly in size from those of the west coast of Nor- 

 way, &c, &c. While this circumstance has, to a certain extent, given 

 rise to the different ways of preparing and naming the herring as an 

 article of trade, it affords the means of forming conclusions as to the 

 herring's manner of living, and also as to the improvement of the her- 

 ring-fisheries iu the future. Many a fisherman, even in our days, be- 

 lieves what formerly, before science shed light upon the subject, was a 

 common opinion, that the herring only accidentally came from remote 

 portions of the sea to the coast where it is found, and therefore thinks he 

 acts wisely in making use of this accident for catching as many as pos- 

 sible ; or, in other words, to fish with implements however destructive 

 to the fish. Since experience, however, has shown that one can never 

 catch Norwegian herring on the Bohuslan coast, Kulla or malmo herring 

 on the Blekiug coast, (the south coast of Sweden,) and Gottlam herring 

 near Ostgota, &c, &c. ; and since the discovery has been made of the 

 time aud place where the herring spawns, and the mode and place of liv- 

 ing of the tender young, it will become evident that the herring, like the 

 salmon and other kinds of fish and animals, has certain distinct lim- 

 its to its migrations aud certain definite places which it frequents iu 

 larger numbers, for the purpose of spawning. Iu order to perpetuate 

 good herring-fisheries ou the coasts with some reasonable hope of suc- 

 cess, fishing must be conducted iu such a manner that only a portion of 

 the tribe which has its spawning-place in a certain bay be caught, and 

 that the young deposited on the coast or at the bottom of the sea be 

 spared. 



In several places on the Baltic aud the Atlantic, people have suffered 

 severely for their recklessness iu conducting the herring-fishery, and 

 especially with regard to the preservation of the young. Thus, obser- 

 vations made during several years have shown that the dying out of 

 the fish has in no small degree contributed to the almost total decline 

 of the great herring fisheries in Bohuslan, which, I am sorry to say, have 

 not yet been revived, chiefty because, as soon as some younge.r herring 

 appear, they are caught with narrow-meshed nets. For many years the 

 herring were accustomed to approach Bredsund, iu Norway, but ceased 

 to appear as soon as people began to use nets. To take a nearer exam- 



