198 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



into deep water immediately after having spawned, in order to find the 

 necessary shelter, and leave the coast mnch quicker than they came. 

 The larger herrings seem likewise to thrive better in the open sea than 

 near the coast, and consequently do not stay there longer than is abso- 

 lutely necessary. Neucrantz, however, goes too far when he supposes 

 that the herrings leave the coast only to escape unpleasant physical con- 

 ditions, for instance, cold or violently agitated water. It has already been 

 mentioned that want of space or the persecutions of enemies have in for- 

 mer times by some been considered as the chief cAuses of the annual 

 migrations and regular coast-visits of the herrings. Such opinions are, 

 however, no longer entertained, and therefore cannot claim our attention. yi^ 



40. The great periods (eighty to one hundred years) of the large races 

 of sea-herrings have long since been known, as far as certain points on 

 the coast of Bohuslan are concerned, but have not formed the subiect of 

 scientific investigations till the present century. In olden times this 

 phenomenon, as peculiar as it was important from an economical point of 

 view, was connected with religious ideas or with some superstitious notion 

 of the period, and it was only Strom, Lijlecker, Dubb, and MacCulloch 

 who spoke of these almost inexplicable facts in a scientific manner, 

 Prom the last-mentioned author we have the expression, often quoted in 

 season and out of season, that the herring is an entirely " capricious " fish. 



Mlsson, who had set himself the special aim to find the causes why the 

 Bohuslan herring-fisheries came to an abrupt end in the year 1808, for 

 the first time examined the question regarding the long periodical visits 

 of the so-called " old" or "genuine sea-herrings" to the coasts of the 

 Skagerack in a truly scientific manner. The result of it was, that their 

 conformity to natural laws was totally denied, and the periodicity of our 

 great herring-fisheries was explained by the herrings having been driven 

 away by man, enough young fish, however, having been left every time 

 to gradually produce new fisheries, to be followed in turn by the final 

 expulsion. This opinion, which was stubbornly opposed by the fisher- 

 men who in Lundhecli had found a literary spokesman, who maintained 

 that it was the nature of the herring " to change its place, and that its 

 visits to our coasts were periodical," was generally shared by the natural- 

 ists of that time, such as C. J. Sundevall, 8. Loven, W. von Wright, Elc- 

 strom, Malm, Wklegren, and others. 'Even Kroyer shared this opinion to 

 some extent, as in these migrations of the herrings continuing for many 

 years and then ceasing all of a sudden he could see nothing else but the 

 changes to which all sea-fisheries are subject; at a later time he chiefly 

 ascribed the undeniable fact of these migrations to the increase in the 

 number of birds and fish-of-prey, changes in the weather, the character 

 of the bottom, the sea-water, and excessive fishing with destructive ap- 

 paratus. 



In direct opposition to this view supported by the most influential 

 scientific authorities, Loberg and Axel Boeck, sustained by popular opin- 

 ion and by the history of the herring-fisheries of Western Scandinavia., 



