238 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



iug or fishing apparatus find favor in the sight of Professor Smitt, who 

 is a lover of antiquities. 



That Professor Smitt now, in contradiction to his assertion made in 

 187.S, feels compelled to agree with me in my views regarding the 

 spawning-season of the Bohusliin sea herring, which I propounded 

 as early as 1874, is hereby gratefully acknowledged, although the pro- 

 fessor is not able to increase our knowledge as regards either place or 

 time of spawning by any facts gained by his own personal observations. 



With regard to the exhibition of scientific collections at a fishery ex- 

 position, it must be said that they are of some use, as they will throw 

 some light on the entire fishing industries of a country. This does not, 

 however, apply to portions of the Swedish exhibit, such as the collec- 

 tion made during the voyage of the Vega, and other collections, which 

 have not the remotest connection with our fisheries, but which require 

 an increase of space and an increased expense. When we read in the 

 papers that it is proposed to exhibit "fishing tschukts" and " five skel- 

 etons of whales, of kinds which are so rare that they are not even found 

 in the British Museum," &c, this cannot fail to awaken some disap- 

 proval, mixed with distrust, as to the object of our representation at the 

 exposition, and regarding the manner in which the directors of our 

 museums fulfill their duties. 



The sum appropriated by the lower house of the Swedish Parliament 

 is, considering the extent of our fisheries, the population of our country, 

 and our financial resources, larger, comparatively, than that which, ac- 

 cording to Professor Smitt, has been appropriated by the United States 

 of America for the same purpose. 



With regard to the appropriation for the exposition, Professor Smitt 

 has evidently not been able to find sufficient reason why Sweden's small 

 fisheries require so much larger an appropriation than Norway's exten- 

 sive fisheries. When he objects to my not counting with the sums ap- 

 propriated by Sweden for the fisheries the extra appropriations, the ones 

 granted by theupperhouse and by the "economical society, '' and, more- 

 over, lays special stress on the circumstance that among these extra 

 appropriations is the sum granted by the herring industries of Bohusliin, 

 he must certainly know very well that even counting in these amounts 

 docs not materially change the disproportion between the amounts 

 granted for the fisheries direct and those appropriated for the repre- 

 sentation of Sweden at the fishery exposition, a disproportion which 

 seems all the greater when we compare our circumstances with those 

 of Norway. It should also be remembered that among the sums appro- 

 priated for the fisheries in Norway for 1882-'8.'3 1 have not counted the 

 extra appropriation of 12,000 crowns [$.'3,216 1, which was asked to aid 

 fishermen and men engaged in the fishing industries to travel to foreign 

 countries, and that I have not given the maximum amount of the Nor- 

 wegian appropriation, as given in the JVbraft FisTceritidende. As regards 

 the small grants which I have enjoyed for nine years for carrying on my 



