XXVII.-THE FISHERIES OF SWEDEN.* 



By Dr. Rudolph Lundberg. 



The herring fisheries.— The herring fisheries are, on the whole 

 the u.ost vahiable of the fisheries of Swedeu. lu this respect, however' 

 they have to compete with the eel fisheries, and on the west coast of 

 Skane with the cod and flounder fisheries. To the fishermen of the west 

 coast the herring fisheries are of special importance because they are 

 carried on during only a small part of the year, and because the income 

 therefrom comes more " in a lump," as the saying is. On the herring 

 fisheries tlie fishermen rely for their stock of fish for the year, and the 

 result of these fisheries is, therefore, of the greatest importance to the 

 coast population. 



Among the herring on the coast of Skane several varieties may be 

 distinguished; and as these different forms of herring caused Prof.*^Sv. 

 Nilsson, more than 50 years ago, to advance his opinion regarding the 

 varieties or races of the herring, they are of special interest, and I 

 therefore deem it proper to give a short account of the same, and dwell 

 on the significance which it seems to me they possess. 



The most important question to explain is'^how the herring, after the 

 year 1808, disappeared from the coast of Bohuslan; and Professor Nils- 

 son (who could not approve of the opinion which was prevalent during 

 the last century, that the proper liome of the herring was the Arctic 

 Ocean, whence they emigrated to the more southern seas in enormous 

 schools) arrived at a totally 'different conclusion, namely, that every 

 basin of the sea had its own kind of herring, which had become sta- 

 tionary there and had consequently its peculiar character, or in other 

 words had developed into a separate " race." As regards the Skai^e 

 herring he distinguished ^ three races, namely, the " KuUa herring," tlie 

 "Kabo herring," and the "Cimbri.sham herring" or "Kivik herring." 

 [Kulla, Rabo, &c., are names of different localities in Skane.] Later^ 

 he defined the first-mentioned variety as a sort of transition form be- 

 t ween the "sea herring" and the "Baltic herring." The south-coast 



* "Meddclanden rorande Sveriges Fisktrier," Stockbolni, 1883. Translated from th^ 

 bwcdish by Herman Jacobson. 



^ i'rodromus ichthijologiw Scandinavica;. Lund, 1832. 

 ^ Skandinavislca Fauna, p. 493. 



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