92 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES, [4] 
Foreigners were allowed to participate in these fisheries by special 
grant from the King, tor which, however, they had to pay a certain sum, 
just like the natives. Peter Clausson, the historian, testifies to the impor- 
tance of these fisheries by saying in his work that “several thousand 
vessels and boats from Denmark and Holstein, as well as from the west- 
ern and northern portions of Norway, came there to fish, besides those 
belonging to the place. Thereby thousands of people from neighboring 
countries have been induced to settle there. They have built them- 
selves houses and cottages, where they live with their wives and chil- 
dren and make a good living through the fisheries. Noblemen, mer- 
chants, and farmers have here erected many large and beautiful houses 
two to three stories high; some of them so large that enormous quan- 
tities of herring can be hung up todry. Thus the coast for 8 to 9 miles 
is lined with many thousand of houses and cottages, and many people 
live all along the fiords and inlets and on every island along this coast, 
as far as the herring extend their migrations. Here are annually seen 
many thousand ships ftom Germany, Denmark, Holland, England, Scot- 
land, and France, which come to buy herring; all of them are amply 
supplied, and take the herring to far-off countries to serve as food for 
men.” 
In the beginning of the second half of the seventeenth century large 
numbers of herring seem again to have approached our coasts. When, 
in 1658, Bohus-lin was united with Sweden, and the herring fisheries 
attracted the attention of the authorities, regulations were issued in 1666 
for these fisheries, in which it was said, among other things, that the 
preparation of herring should only be carried on in Gottenburg, Kalf- 
sund, Marstrand, Mollésund, Gullholmen, and Lysekil, which clearly indi- 
cates that, at that time, the herring principally visited the central and 
southern coasts. About the year 1670 the herring ceased to come to 
the southern coast, but continued to visit the central coast till the end 
of that herring period, which was about 1680, or, according to some, in 
1697. Nothing is known regarding fisheries on the northern coast dur- 
ing this period, but it is probable that herring also came there. The 
herring fisheries, which were greatly disturbed by the political condi- 
tion of the country, were also, during this period, carried on with nets. 
About the middle of the eighteenth century the herring again came 
to the coast of Bohus-lin in large numbers. In a report on the fisheries 
from the year 1758 we read the following: ‘In 1747 and 1748 the her- 
ring again commenced to visit the northern coast of Bohus-lin in large 
numbers. <A few years later they went as far south as Marstrand, and 
from 1752 on they made their appearance at Gottenburg.” In the report 
of the Royal Fish Commission, dated April 22, 1761, we read: “ From 
the year 1750 the herring had their station on the southern coast, be- 
tween Gotienburg and Marstrand, and about 3 to 4 miles north of the 
last-mentioned city.” In the report of the same commission of 1764 we 
read that “in autumn the herring were generally found on both sides of 
Marstrand. Some years they appeared in large numbers near Gottenburg 
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