t'''^] THE BOHUSLAN HERRING FISHERIES. 403 



hevrwjr offer far less advantages, as compared with the 1ow(m- o,,,ae. 

 ha" for satmg Whether we shall ever have floatiu,-net tishe:;.-es on' 

 a large scale will dei^end on the yield as compared ^.ith the expendi- 

 ture for bnymo- aa.d keepino- the apparatus, the labor required, and the 

 general advantages to the fishermen. They will, of conrse, choose the 

 npparatns which in every respect offers them the greatest advantages 

 lu judging this question, which is of the utmost importance for the 

 development of the Bohuslan coast fisheries, we should have due reo-ird 

 to the vast difference between fisheries on a large scale, whose yietd is 

 to a great extent prepared for exportation, and small fisheries whose 

 yield IS principally consumed, either fresh or slightlv smoked, near the 

 fishing stations. It is an erroneous idea that a fishing apparatus or a 

 method of fishing can be introduced with us to any advantage simply 

 because one could obtain necessarily high prices for small quantities of 

 herring sold in Gothenburg by the score at a time of the vear when very 

 few fresh herring are brought into the market. It would also be a mis- 

 take to draw comparisons between the price of herring, based on their 

 actual value, when brought into the market in large quantities, and the 

 fancy prices paid for herring when they are scarce, prices which are 

 paid without any regard to the apparatus or method of fishing employed 

 It should also be remembered that because a certain way of eainino- -i 

 hying is profitable in one locality it need not be the san.e in another 

 where the^natural conditions, the character of the population, and the 

 faci ities for selling are entirely different. Before introducing a new 

 method of earning a living it should be ascertained whethei-all the 

 necessary conditions of success are either found in the locality in aues 

 tiou or can be furnished. Otherwise the mistakes of foru.er times 

 would only be repeated, and the means already possessed by the peoi>le 

 which with proper and careful use might yield good results, would be' 

 uselessly squandered. This l.as been the experience in Sc;tland and 

 Bohuslan during the last century. 



As attempts made during the last herring period to inaugurate fish- 

 eries on a large scale with floating nets on the Dutch plan pro4d failures 

 the royal fishery commission in 1770 [1870 ?J proposed that an attempt 

 should be made to have floating-net fisheries on a small scale and with 

 cheap apparatus. The same proposition was made somewhat later by 

 Ee^^ Mr. Ekstrom, but without success. This proposition to use seines 

 on he mackerel boats for catching a small quantity of herring d,g 

 the light season of the year was again made by the author in liso, as a 

 desn-a^Ie and comparatively harmless experiment ; but this proposit on is 

 entirely different from the oue n.ade by Professor' Smitt to^an'o" 

 Bohuslan herring-fisheries exclusively with floating-nets, as on ^the east 

 coast of Scotland, instead of with seines, which, strange tosay he thi Jks 

 should be entirely prohibited. The floating-net fishe^-ies ^{^^^t 

 desirable only when they, like the fixed nets on the west coast of Nor- 



