THE SALT-WATER FISHERIES OF BOHUSLAN. 205 



meroiis attempts to find tlie causes of tliese migrations; tliis is prob- 

 ably the most difficult and most violently disputed part of the whole 

 herring-question. As these fishery-periods have been most distinetly 

 marked by long intervals on the coast of Bohusliin, as there they have 

 caused the greatest economical revolutions, and as consequently they 

 are better known, having at au early period been made the subject of 

 scientific investigations, a brief review of the successive views regarding 

 the causes of the cessation of the last great Bohuslan fisheries will be 

 in place here. 



When the great herring-fisheries came to an end in the year 1808, 

 and many men experienced heavy losses, causing great want and sulier- 

 ing on the coast of Bohusliin, it was quite natural that in Bohuslan, at 

 least, peoijle began to think seriously about the causes of this great mis- 

 fortune and about the possibility of retrieving it. Wheu by dii'ect ob- 

 servations it had been ascertained as an undeniable fact that the so- 

 called "old herrings" had really left the Skagerack, the opinion gained 

 ground among the more educated classes that the herrings had been 

 chased away by destructive fishing, by noise, and by the great quantities 

 of refuse from the oil-refineries which had been thrown into the sea ; this 

 opinion was publicly expressed in a pami)hlet published in 1822 by Mr. 

 Svenssoti, the proprietor of large salting establishments. This as well as 

 the repeated demands for subsidies from the state to promote the fish- 

 ing interests and help the imi)overished fishermen finally induced the 

 government to order a scientific investigation of the whole matter. This 

 investigation was entrusted to Prof. 8. Nilsson, who during the summer 

 seasons of 1826, 1827, 1832, and 1833 visited the coast of Bohuslan. In 

 his reports he gave his above-mentioned opinion as to the cause why the 

 herring-fisheries had come to an end. But when he proposed, in order 

 to help the Bohuslan herring-fisheries, that fishing with close nets should 

 be prohibited and in its place fishing with stationary nets having wide 

 meshes should be introduced, his general views began to be opposed, 

 especially the one that the herrings should have been driven away by 

 too much fishing, which last-mentioned idea people thought they could 

 traceinhis report for 1828. Professor iV(75'S0?i replied that his expressions 

 had been entirely misunderstood, that he had never " either entertained 

 or expressed" such an "unreasonable idea." During the conferences 

 with a number of fishermen which were held in the year 1833, the opin- 

 ion that the herrings should have been driven away by too much fish- 

 ing, by noise, or by impure water was strongly opposed. When the 

 above-mentioned causes no longer found favor, the opinion gained 

 ground that the fisheries had come to an end through the use of close 

 nets, an opinion which found some support in an " ominous" expression 

 of the distinguished ichthyologist Mr. BlocJi. This opinion was not 

 directly submitted to the criticism of the coast population, and con- 

 sequently remained in favor for some time, but was finally also aban- 

 doned. 



