230 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



well as others having been blessed with successful herring-fisheries. But 

 since there is danger that God may withdraw His blessings on account 

 of the great sins and vices of the inhabitants of the coast, our tax-gath- 

 erers, each one in his district, shall see to it that people in the fishing- 

 stations lead good and Christian lives ; that there is preaching every 

 Sunday, and people are exhorted to lead a godly life, so that God may 

 be moved by the prayers of good Christians to extend His blessings to 

 us also in the future." A short time after this "Law-book" had been 

 issued, the herrings entirely disappeared from the coast of Bohusliin; 

 and Feter Clausson relates that "many hundred merchants and fisher- 

 men went to great expense, but all in vain." 



It would naturally be supposed that after the close of the fisheries the 

 coast population were suffering from great poverty and want; but as 

 nothing of the kind is handed down by tradition or by writings from those 

 times,^^ it must be supposed that the evil consequences were in some 

 measure diminished or warded off in such a way as not seriously to influ- 

 ence the whole province.^^ It is possible that many of the inhabitants of 

 the coast moved to other parts, or found some other employment. The 

 land-owners of Bohuslan were at that time well-to-do and independent, 

 having other sources of income ; whilst in the cities, among the rest in 

 Marstrand, the considerable commerce had i^roduced a state of well-being. 

 Although the herring-fisheries exercised a great influence on the popula- 

 tion of Bohuslan through their demoralizing tendencies, and through the 

 poverty consequent upon their sudden cessation, Bohuslan suffered less 

 than it did two hundred years later when the same occurrence took place. 

 One reason was certainly the shorter duration of the fisheries in the six- 

 teenth century as well as the very Mmited freedom of trade. 



About seventy years later, when Bohuslan, after having for eight cen- 

 turies formed a province of Xorway, was incorporated with Sweden, the 

 herrings again visited our coast; and there would certainly again have 

 been large fisheries if the sanguinary war between Denmark and Sweden, 

 which lasted from 1675 to 1679, had not prevented all fishing. More- 

 over, the conditions for drawing together on this coast a large number 

 of experienced fishermen were not so favorable as when Bohuslan still 

 belonged toDenmark-Xorway. 



In order to give to the herring-fisheries some legal sanction, a royal 

 decree was published, October 13, 1606, concerning a regulation which 

 was to be observed during the herring-fisheries. In this regulation cer- 

 tain ports are mentioned, viz, Gottenburg, Kalfsund, Marstrand, MoUo- 

 sund, GuUholmen, and Lysekil, in which alone herrings might be taken 

 ashore and be prepared for the trade, and where inspectors, endowed 

 with the necessary authority, should supervise the fisheries and see to 



2e Holmherg, "Bohn^I. hist. o. lesl:," II, p. 100, 101, note. 



2' It is quite probable, however, that these demoralizing herring-fisheries have left 

 traces on the central coast of Bohusliin, especially near Tjorn, which may be felt even 

 in our days ; for otherwise it would be difficult to explain the low moral state of the 

 population on that coast, of which Holmierg and other authors speak. 



