364 REPORT Ow COMMISSIONER OP FISH ANt) FISHERIES, [2] 



"herring and the east-coast herring he considered as the same kind, and 

 called it the "Kivik herring." He thought that it lorined the connect- 

 ing link between the South Baltic herring and the '•'■ stromming''^ or 

 North Baltic herring. Nilsson, however, has never given a proper 

 scientific distinction to tliese different varieties. Among the contem- 

 porary Swedish naturalists his opinion was for a long time the oidy 

 accepted one. Occasionally doubts were uttered as to the correctness 

 of the hypothesis relative to the diflerent vari<4ies of herring, but 

 these doubts were based not so much on special investigations as on 

 mere supi)osition. For the last few years a German naturalist, Fr. 

 Heincke,^ has treated this whole question of the different races of the 

 herring iu the most careful and thorough manner. The result at which 

 he arrived is that there are several varieties of the herring, and among 

 these again some local kinds, therefore on the whole the same as Nils- 

 Son's opinion, although Heincke divides the races differently. 



The question as to the races of the herring is doubtless an exceedingly 

 difficult one, somewhat owing to the fact that the definition of the term 

 " race " is by no means absolutely certain. During my journeys I have 

 had occasion to give some attention to this matter, and during the last 

 year I caused the superintendents of the fisheries to gatlier herring 

 from the neighborhood of Kulleu and from the east coast of Skane. 

 T have, however, not been able to convince myself that among the her- 

 ring from the Baltic and Cattegat, which I examined according to the 

 method employed by Heincke, there are different races. It would re- 

 quire a separate treatise to give my investigation iu detail, but I deem 

 it proper to direct attention to various matters connected with the ques- 

 tion of the varieties of the herring which deserve to be studied more 

 than has been done hitherto. First of all it should be clearly under- 

 stood what is meant by the term " race." Opinions are divided on this 

 subject, but every one will agree with me that races in a scientific sense 

 cannot be distinguished by a greater or less degree of fatness or a dif 

 ferent flavor, or, in other words, by qualities which are taken into con- 

 sideration when the herring are sorted as articles of merchandise. Care 

 should also be taken not to consider as marks of differences of race 

 those variations that are caused by the age of the fish; for if this was 

 done herring of different ages would form separate races. It may with 

 good reason be questioned whether the distinctive marks of the different 

 races are not simply caused by differences of age, the greater or less 

 development of the sexual organs, &c. Every one knows that in the 

 Baltic there is found a smaller kind of herring (the sfromming), and the 

 opinion is very general that the sfrdmmwg, which sometimes (espe- 

 cially when salted) has a different flavor from the common herring, must 

 be another kind of herring. It is a fact that in the Baltic there are 



»Fr. Heincke: "Die VarieMen des Rerings." I and II annual report of the commis- 

 sion for tlie scientific invesf igation of tlic Gorm'an sea near Kiel. Vol. iv-vi, Berlin, 

 1878, and vol. vii-xi, jiart 1, Bi-rlin, 183-3. 



