578 LOSS ATTENDANT ON THE ABSENCE OF THE FISH. 



their places many times in that interval. In a similar 

 manner, and with equal truth, it was said they had been 

 driven from the Baltic by the battle of Copenhagen. It 

 is amusing to see how old theories are revived. This is 

 a very ancient Highland hypothesis, with the necessary 

 .modification. Before the days of guns and gunpowder, 

 the Highlanders held that they quitted the coasts where 

 blood had been shed ; and thus is ancient philosophy 

 renovated. Steam-boats are now supposed to be the 

 culprits, since a reason must be found : to prove their 

 effects. Loch Fine, visited by a steam-boat daily, is now 

 their favourite haunt, and they have deserted other lochs 

 where steam-boats have never yet smoked." 



Taking all things into consideration, therefore, and 

 as the Herring has on many previous occasions absented 

 itself for years and years together from the Bohus coast, 

 it seems to me not at all improbable that the inhabitants 

 Avill some fine day be rejoiced by another " Land-stotning" 

 of these fish. 



The disappearance of the herrings from the Bohus 

 Skiirgard for more than half a century has been attended 

 Avitli considerable loss, not only to those interested in the 

 fisheries, but to the mercantile community at large. In 

 other respects the country itself has probably been a 

 gainer by the absence of the fish. Great injury was in 

 the first place done by the fisheries to agriculture ; for 

 Avhen there was a " Land-stotning," the men cast aside 

 their farming implements, and leaving the women to till 

 the ground — an occupation considered beneath their dig- 

 nity — they hastened to seek their fortunes in what was 

 then looked on as a mine of wealth. As a consequence, 

 the soil was soon ruined, and years were required before 

 it recovered itself. Speaking generally, moreover, men 

 once engaged in the fisheries lost their previous habits 

 of industrv and economv, and were never afterwards 



