VIII.-THE SALT-WATER FISHERIES OF BOHUSLAN AND THE 

 SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SALT-WATER FISH- 

 ERIES. 



By Axel Vilhelm Ljungman." 



THE NECESSARY BASIS FOR CARRYING ON THE BOHUS- 

 LAN SALT-WATER FISHERIES AND THE SCIENTIFIC AND 

 PRACTICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS RE- 

 QUIRED FOR OBTAINING THIS BASIS. 



§ 1. Every state ought to consider it as its duty to make scientific 

 investigations, at any rate witbin its own limits. 



In order that a comparatively poor, extensive, and thinly populated 

 country may do its duty in this respect, it is doubtless necessary that 

 the work be done systematically, according to a well-matured plan, if the 

 object in view is to be attained, i. e., a thoroughly scientific knowledge 

 of one's own country. Societies or individuals may, in this respect, do 

 as they deem best — their work and their sacrifices will in any case do 

 some good — but the state must act according to a distinct plan, so that from 

 leant of means one portion of the investigation may not suffer, which, by 

 a wiser and more systematic use of all the means at the command of the 

 state, might have led to good results ivithout thereby injuring any other part 

 of the investigation. 



It is always cheapest to do everything systematically, and is the surest 

 way to reach one's object, and it is almost indispensable at a time when 

 so considerable a portion of the public revenues must be devoted to the 

 defense of the state against foreign enemies. 



Wealthy states (especially those which possess colonies) can and ought 

 to extend their scientific investigations also to uninhabited and uncivil- 

 ized portions of the world. In this way we shall, in course of time, attain 

 to such a complete scientific knowledge (physico-geographical, geologi- 

 cal, mineralogical, botanical, zoological, ethnographical, linguistical, and 

 archaeological) of our world as our rapidly progressing time demands. 



§ 2. The great services which science has rendered to agriculture, min- 

 ing, and industry, as weU as to nearly all our trades, and the losses which 

 a lack of theoretical knowledge has frequently occasioned, show the ab- 

 solute necessity of following the only certain guidance of science. In 

 all branches of human activity a desire is manifested at the present 



* Bohuslans Harfisken och de vetenskapUga Havfiske umleraokmngarna, A f Axel Vilhelm 

 Ljungman. Gottenberg, 1878. Translated by Herman Jaeobson. 



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