THE COD FISHERIES NKAR THE LOFFODEN ISLANDS. 645 



enormous quantity of small marine animals wbicli liad come in with 

 the current ; and I was not disappointed. The herrings staid for a 

 long time in the bay of Vespestadvaagen, which cuts deep into the 

 west side of the island of Bommelo, where very rich hauls of lier- 

 riugs were made even long after the little marine animals had disap- 

 peared from the outer islands. 



As I knew that last winter considerable spring herring fisheries had 

 been carried on, though only for a short time, at tlie fishing station 

 of Lyngholmen, on the other side of the fiord, I took an interest in 

 examining that locality in order to compare it with Espevter, where 

 this year there had been no spring-herring fisheries. 1 therefore sta- 

 tioned myself there for some time, and took several excursions, both 

 in a westerly direction round the Ny varden light house and . farther 

 up the fiord. It is true that during my stay I did not succeed in 

 witnessing any summer-herring fisheries; but I had occasion to make 

 another observation which was of great interest to me, because I had 

 heard that the spring-herrings during the last winter-fisheries had 

 " whitened " the sea, i. e., had spawned. The sea was everywhere 

 filled with young herrings, which roamed about in dense schools partly 

 near the land and partly farther out in the fiord, followed by flocks of 

 sea-gulls and terns. In one of the well-known fishing-places east of 

 Lyngholmen, called Eltrevaag, people thought one day that they could 

 see many young cod (" mort "), and let down a small net, but when 

 it was hauled in, it was found to contain nothing but young herrings, 

 which were so small that most of them slipped through the meshes 

 of the net.* 



Also, during the continuation of my journey up the fiord, I repeat- 

 edly noticed large schools of the same year's young ones even as far 

 up as the sounds, where I was told they had never been seen before, 

 at any rate not in any large number. I must lay stress on the fact 

 that these fish were not young " brisling." The fishermen know very 

 well how to distinguish the two by their size and other characteristics. 



Before I concluded my investigations for this year, I desired for com- 

 parison's sake to visit a few points in the northern herring district where 

 the fisheries last winter had been of a very peculiar character, the her- 

 rings staying away from the old and well known fishing-stations and 

 coming in considerable number to places where in former years there 

 had been no fishing at all. 



*I here take occasion to correct a mistake made in my last report (for 1872). I 

 had supposed that the small herrings, about the size of the "brisling," which at 

 Stavanger is called "^sja," were the young ones of that year. The observations 

 made by me this summer, however, have inclined me to the opinion that they are 

 older herrings, young ones from the preceding winter. Another year must therefore 

 be added to the time which it takes the herring to become fully matured; there- 

 fore, first year, " musse " ; second year, "aesja" (bladsild); third year, " Christiania 

 herring"; fourth year, "middle herring"; fifth year, "merchants' herring"; sixth 

 year, " spring-herriug." 



