724 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



most abundant products, and its capture has occupied to the present 

 time the greatest number of hands. 



The little we know of the spring-herring fishery in ancient times must 

 be gathered from fragments in the works of different authors, of whom 

 none intended to occupy himself with this particular subject. It may 

 be inferred from these works, however, that this fishery has existed 

 from the remotest periods as one of the principal sources of well-being 

 for the inhabitant of the coasts, without, however, being of general 

 interest to the rest of the population or of importance in a commercial 

 point of view, since they were ignorant at that time of the art of salting 

 the herring, and contented themselves with smoking or drying it in 

 the air. After the art of salting herring became understood, this fish- 

 ing assumed importance, and this is especially true since the fifteenth 

 century. From 1567 to 1700 it was not kept up, or, at any rate, was 

 extremely limited, but since that time it has continued to develop, except 

 during the years from 1784 to 1808. 



Since 1874 the spring herring has again disappeared from our coasts. 

 Its previous disappearances coincided generally with a relative abun- 

 dance of herring upon the southwest coast of Sweden, which, in its turn, 

 lost the herring as soon as it reappeared in Norway. This year they have 

 commenced to find ui)on the Swedish coast a herring which appears 

 analogous to the spring herring of Norway, and one is tempted to be- 

 lieve, in view of this fact, that the spring herring in its migrations makes 

 some stoppages upon the coast of Sweden. The savants do not agree 

 about the migrations of this species of herring; some maintain that it 

 remains all the year in the same latitude, but that it keeps more outside 

 and comes to the coast only to spawn ; others say that it undertakes 

 long migrations to the Arctic seas. The Norwegian Government has 

 made great efforts to throw light upon this question. Let us hope that 

 our naturalists and naval officers, who, braving every danger, have gone 

 two summers in succession to explore the depths of the Atlantic, will be 

 able by the comparative study of currents and water-temperatures to 

 contribute to a great extent in giving us more precise ideas upon the 

 herring in general, and the spring herring in particular. That portion 

 of the coast comprised between Capes Lindesnaes and Stat is the true 

 home of the spring herring. To the east of Cape Lindesnaes it showed 

 itself but exceptionally in 17G0 and 1833. From 1736 to 1756 only were 

 the fisheries at the north of Cape Stat as far as Nordmore of importance. 

 The most successful fishery is generally in the vicinity of Karmo, and 

 going up the coast as far as the island of Hisken ; but from 1808 to 1833 

 it was also good in the archipelago situated to the southwest of Bergen, 

 with a renewal in 1864. To the south of Jaederen these fish have been 

 caught only occasionally, especially from 1833 to 1837, toward Farsund 

 and Flekkefjord, and in 1839 and 1840 near Egersund. Since 1860 this 

 fishery has been carried on upon a great scale in Soudfjord (Bremauger 

 and Kinn), and in the Nordfjord (Moldo). Sondmore (Hero) has also 



