202 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



rich spring-herring fisheries in the same places where, during the pre- 

 ceding summer, great masses of summer-herring have shown themselves, 

 we ought to have had for a long number of years steady and particu- 

 larly rich spring-herring fisheries on the coast north of Christians- 

 sund as far as the Tromso district, and even farther north ; but noth- 

 ing of the kind is known, no real spring-herring having been caught 

 along that coast during this century." Sars, in answer to this, says, if 

 we understand him correctly, that the northern "sea-herring," or "great 

 herring," is the same as the " spring-herring;" but Boeck draws atten- 

 tion to the fact that the " great herring" does not go farther south than 

 the boundary of the Nordland district, and that, from that point as far as 

 Christianssund, there is a long stretch of coast where large summer-her- 

 ring fisheries have taken place and still take place, and where no spring- 

 herring are caught. The " great-herring " fisheries did not commence 

 till 1861, and prior to that year there had not been any spring-fisheries 

 in that location for sixty, perhaps for eighty, years. During those years 

 when the spring-herring had left the heights of Stavanger entirely, 

 (17S4 to 1808,) there were rich summer-herring fisheries in the Stavan- 

 ger fjord, and in other places, and these fisheries were most successful 

 in the middle years of this period ; when the spring-herriug fisheries 

 again increased, the summer-herring disappeared altogether. Several 

 printed and manuscript reports particularly deplore the fact that the 

 valuable "summer-herring" has gone away, while the inferior " spring- 

 herring" has come again. Just as little is it known from experience that 

 where there have been rich spring-herring fisheries for a number of 

 years, great numbers of summer-herring could at the same time be 

 caught in the inlets along this coast. It appears, from the Stavanger 

 and Bergenshus districts' reports, published every five years, that, for 

 many years, when the spring-herring fisheries were successful, few or 

 no summer-herring were caught on the same coast. It is only during 

 the last few years that the summer-herring fisheries have been success- 

 ful in the Stavanger fjords, but during these very years the spring- 

 herring fishery has not amounted to anything. The hopes which have 

 been built on the great quantity of young fish coming in have also 

 but too often been disappointed, and no conclusion can be reached as to 

 the probable fate of the Norwegian spring-herring fisheries in the near 

 future. " When the spring-herring, in 1833, went past the cape (Lin- 

 desnaes) as far as Mandal, all the bays were later in the year full of 

 young herring. The inhabitants of that coast for that reason enter- 

 tained great hopes of contiuuing the fisheries during the following 

 years, especially when the young from that year would have grown up ; 

 but these hopes were not fulfilled, for later no herring appeared on that 

 side of the cape. During the year when the spring-herring left the 

 coast, it had spawned near Flekkeijord, and numerous young fish justi- 

 fied the hope of future rich fisheries, although the fishing during that 

 year had been poor, and the herring had kept in such deep water that 



