37G REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [14] 



entirely. lu explanation of this circumstance Winther states that the 

 small Baltic herring, which in 1867 came into the upper part of the 

 Sound in large numbers, found that the deep basin south of the island 

 of nven was no longer inhabited by the large Sound herring. The 

 Baltic herring therefore i^mained in that locality, increasing in size 

 from year to year till they reached the size of the KuUa herring when 

 they became too large for the Sound and went out into the Cattegat. 

 This explanation, however, is hardly satisfactory, as it is well known 

 that the herring from the Cattegat and the Baltic enter the bound 

 every year towards the beginning of the spawning season in autumn, 

 that at no other season are there any important herring-fishenes m the 

 Sound, and that at other times no large herring whatever are caught 



The recent changes in the Skane herring-fisheries naturally have 

 drawn attention to the rich fisheries near Skanor and Falsterbo during 

 the I^Iiddle Ages, and it may be of interest to state briefly what is known 

 relative to these fisheries, and how they compare with the present Sound 



fisheries. £. , i • \ 



In the Knyilinqa Saga (written in the beginning of the thirteenth 

 century) it is stated that Canute the Holy (died 108C), during the war 

 with the Skanians, brought them into .subjection by threatening to 

 exclude them from the herring fisheries. Saxo, in his Danish History 

 (written soon after 12()a), relates : "At that time there was such an 

 enormous number of herring in the Sound that they could be caught 

 with the hands, and it was almost impossible for a boat to nuike its 

 way through the dense masses of fish." During the first years of the 

 thirteenth century the Germans seem to have taken a share in the 

 Skane herring-fisheries. According to the historian Hvitfeld, the Lu- 

 beckers, in 1203, obtained the privilege from the Danish king, Walde- 

 mar Seier, of engaging in fishing, and they were to begin on the coast of 

 Skane. According to Saitorius (a German historian) they did not 

 secure these privileges in due form till the year 1343. These privi- 

 leges were confirmed in 13(35, when their right to carry on a retail trade 

 was taken away and not restored till 1370. The most important pro- 

 vision of these privileges, according to Sartorius, allowed the Lubeck- 

 ers to sell cloth, linen, &c., by the yard ; in other words, to carry on a 

 retail trade, a privilege but rarely granted to foreigners. During these 

 troubled times, and during the reigns of worthless kings, the Hanse 

 Towns succeeded in getting the entire control of the Skane fisheries and 

 trade. The principal trading and fishing stations were Skanor and 

 Falsterbo, and also Elleubogen (the present city of Malmo). Here large 

 markets were held during the autumn herring fisheries. The Danish 

 historian C. F. Allen estimates the number of persons who at that 

 ' time visited the coast of Skane at from 60,000 to 70,000. Another Dan- 

 ish historian, Styflf, says that at Skanor and Falsterbo the so-called 

 Biscay fleet, on its return from the southwest of Europe, met the mer- 



