THE SALT-WATER FISHERIES OF BOHUSLAN. 193 



herrings which coming from the north went all round Great Britain and 

 thus produced the diflereut fisheries. This opinion soon became a gen- 

 erally-received axiom, and is as such given in the older works on the 

 herring-question (for example, the works of Camden^ Schooclc, and lonston). 



This Avas the origin of the great migration-theory which was by later 

 authors advanced in the Atlas maritinms et commerckdis published in 

 London in 1728,^^ according to which the herrings were supposed — from 

 want of room and food — to come from the north in such enormous masses 

 that in passing between Greenland and the Xorth Cape (which large 

 space of sea was for them only a narrow sound), they had to keep very 

 close together in order to pass. It was also supposed that after having 

 passed this sea the herrings divided into two schools, the one (again 

 divided in two smaller schools by Ireland) going west and the other east 

 of Great Britain, not to be seen again after they had reached its southern 

 coast. According to this opinion the herrings were supposed to propa- 

 gate not only near the Xorth Pole but also near the coasts of Great 

 Britain. 



Fascinated by these bold conjectures Johan Anderso7i, always inclined 

 towards fantastic opinions, determined to work them up in detail ; and 

 he did not forget the Scandinavian countries with their separate divis- 

 ions of the great school of herrings, which, as he supposed, did not only 

 have their proper home in the " bottomless deep " under the Polar ice, 

 but also sheltered from the i)ersecutions of men and fish-of-prey, increased 

 to such an extent that an enormous number of herrings was forced every 

 year to leave their home and visit those coasts which Providence intended 

 to bless in a special manner. It will not be necessary to dwell any longer 

 on this strange and fanciful theory, especially as nearly every one who 

 has written on the migrations of the herrings has devoted far more time 

 to it than it deserves, even to the exclusion of really important scientific 

 questions. This theory, worthy of Munchausen, may serve, however, as 

 an example of the credulity and the total want of critical discernment 

 prevailing not only among the great mass of the people, but also among 

 naturalists, some of whom give this opinion in their works as if it were 

 a scientific truth. 



But as another fish — popularly called ''herring,'' and by many consid- 

 ered Identical with the herring proper — comes to the eastern coast of 

 Korth America from the south, it became necessary to modify the mi- 

 gration-theory with regard to America. And this was done by John 

 Gilpin, who let the herrings follow the declination of the sun and annually 

 wander in an elliptic course between the Polar circle and the Tropic of 

 Cancer aU round the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean, thus con- 

 stantly avoiding both excessive heat and excessive cold. It will not be 

 necessary, either, to give much time to this fantastic theory, which, 



^^Doit according to M. E. Block, Oeconomische Naturgeschichte der Fische Deutschlands, 

 I, Berlin, 1782, p. 188, a statement which, however, seems to be doubtful. 

 13 F 



