196 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ject is of unusual interest; for no one knows to what important discov- 

 eries it may lead. We will, therefore, in this place give an extract of 

 Mr. Sars's " Report," and in connection with it review the more impor- 

 tant remarks called forth by it on both sides. 



On the 17th July, Mr. Sars began his sojourn in Stav anger, and from 

 that place made excursions in the neighboring fjords. In the city 

 itself he had an excellent opportunity of examining herring, which 

 about this time were brought to market from various places in large 

 quantities. He subsequently visited one of the fishing-stations on the 

 outer coast, where, during the wiuter, the so-called spring-herring fisheries 

 are carried on, partly for the purpose of obtaining information regard- 

 ing those fisheries, partly for the purpose of making personal observa- 

 tions. The place he visited was " Hvitingso," an island far out in the 

 sea, and an old and well-known spring-herring fishing-place. From 

 that point he made excursions in all directions, examining particularly 

 the bottom of the ocean in those places where the herring-fisheries are 

 carried on. Mr. Sars also collected much information regarding the 

 spring-herring fisheries from conversations with experienced fishermen. 

 He reports that at that season enormous numbers of young herring were 

 found in the more sheltered sounds and bays, which, on closer exami- 

 nation, turned out to be almost exclusively young spring-herring,* 

 and, as could be ascertained, of this year's spawning. The fishermen 

 know this herring-spawn very well, and call it "Aesja. v \ They use it 

 partly as bait, partly as food in eel-boxes, and take it as often ^ as re- 

 quired with fine nets in quiet, grass-grown inlets. In examining the 

 ''Brisling," (Clupea sprattus,) brought to the Stavanger fish-market 

 from various places, it was frequently found mixed with a great number 

 of young spring-herring. The Hvitingso fishermen testified that dur- 

 ing that year the spring-herring was found in unusual quantities ; in 

 fact, they did not remember so good a spring-herring year since the old 

 extraordinarily rich spring-herring fisheries. Sars concludes from this 

 that during the previous winter a large number of spring-herring must 

 have remained near the coast and have spawned there; and that, there- 

 fore, the poor spring-fisheries of the previous year cannot have been 

 caused by any decrease in the number of herrings, nor by any change 

 of route in the migrations of the herrings, but only by the circumstance 

 that for some reason or other the great mass of the herrings did not 

 come as near the coast as formerly, but spawned farther out at sea. All 

 the fishermen agreed that large schools of herring approached the coast 

 at the usual time, which could be judged of from the unusual number 



of whales and birds ; and for some time there was a prospect that the 



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* It seems that the author hy this term only 'wishes to convey the idea that they 



•were the young of the genuine herring, (Clupea harengus,) in contradistinction from the 



" Brisling," (Clupea sprattus,) not that they were the young of that variety of herring 



■which is called " spring-herring ; " but as he does not seem to allow that there are several 



varieties of herring on the coast of Norway, it amounts to the same thing. 



t Danish : Aes, i. e., food. 



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