366 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



opiuiou riiar tlie large herring which are foimd in the Baltic retain the 

 .same characteristics which distinguish the younger herringf^ is erroneous. 

 It is certainlj- true that the Baltic herring, or strdinming, because they 

 do not get such rich food, do not grow as rapidly as the North Sea her- 

 ring, and are not found in such large quantities, aud that, therefore, 

 the number of full-grown fish in the Baltic must be sjiialler than in 

 the North Sea; but it seems to me that this does not by any means 

 prove that these herring, viewed from a zoological standpoint, must 

 belong to separate races, even if, as articles of merchandise, they 

 are considered as different kinds.^ Accordingly, I cannot share George 

 V\lnthcr's opinion^ that in the Sound there are found no less than 

 three races of herring, namely, a small variety spawning in spring, 

 the Sound herring proper, which, "owing to its being confined in a 

 small basin, never reaches any considerable size;" the Cattegat her- 

 ring; aud the Baltic herring; each of which come into the Sound from 

 their original place of sojourn, and spawn in autumn. On the other 

 hand, Wiuther may be perfectly correct in his opiuiou that the Baltic 

 herring occasionally goes into the Cattegat and the Cattegat herring 

 into t*lie Baltic. Near Kullen and Torekov I have heard complaints 

 that the genuine "Kulhi herring" is not found there every year, but 

 that its place is sometimes taken by smaller and leaner herring, which 

 are supposed to come from the Baltic. Nothing but investigation car- 

 ried on for several years can definitely decide this question. The only 

 noticeable difference between the "Knlhi herring," " Ystad herring," 

 nnd "Cimbrisham herring," which I had occasion to examine, consists 

 in this, that the first-mentioned herring have generally a smaller head 

 in proportion to the length of their body than the last two. But, as 

 Heincko has shown, the proportion of the head to the length of the 

 body depends on the age, and is probably caused by the circumstance 

 that the head, with its firm framework of bones, does not grow in the 

 same projjortion as the rest of the body. 



The region in which the Skane fishermen carry on the herring fish- 

 eries extends in a northerly and westerly direct iou as far as the Falk- 

 enberg region and the Seeland l^ef, aud in a southerly and easterly 

 direction through the Sound as far as IMoen and Bornholm, and north 

 as far as the Hano Bay. The most important fisiiing stations are near 

 Hallands-Waedero and Kullaberg, Flintrannan, and the regions south 

 . of these locahties as fiir as Skauor and near Bornholm, but herring are 

 more or less caught along the entire coast. As regards the method 



BNilsson's Fainia Fislarna, see p. 512, wLere it ia called a variety of the slromming. 

 Nilsson's coiuparisou between the great lierring from Gefle and an equally large her- 

 ring from theCattegat (Observaiiones Ichlhiiologica;, p. 11) was made between two speci- 

 mens, one of each kind, aud therefore does not proA'e anything. 



'I have never heard it stated that the so-called " Halrnstad salmon " and the "Baltic 

 salmon" areof different rjiccs, although as articles of merchandise they .arcconsiflerctl 

 different. ♦ 



*" Om Sundcls /Silderacer," in yordisk Tidsakrift for l''i8keri, vol. ii, 1876. 



