94 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 
greatest height, nearly 2,000,000 tons;* from that year, however, the 
quantity of fish caught rapidly decreased. The reason why so few fish 
were caught in the beginning of the fisheries was, simply, that there 
was a lack of experienced fishermen and improved apparatus, and also a 
lack of a proper market; but not, by any means, that fewer fish came near 
the coast. An experienced fisherman, who had taken an active part in 
the fisheries ever since 1754, says in 1809: “ After the year 1767 the 
number of herring on our coast was not as large as prior to that year, 
but our fishermen have gained more experience ; we have better nets, 
boats, and salting-houses, and more men to take part in the fisheries, so 
that as many herring were caught and prepared as were needed, till 
the latter part of the herring period, when the approach of winter greatly 
interfered with the fisheries.” From trustworthy sources we learn that, 
during that portion of the herring period when the fisheries were at 
their greatest height, the herring came near the coast in such enor- 
mous numbers that those which were caught only represented a very 
small portion of the total number of fish on the coast; and that each 
season the fisheries came to an end, not because there was a lack of 
herring, but because no one could be found who was willing to pay 
anything for them, all demands having been fully satisfied. From the 
fishery report of 1788 we learn that, in 1787, there were on the coast of 
Bohus-liin 338 salting-houses; 429 oil-refineries with a total of 1,812 vats, 
which used 13,662 tons of fresh fish every time oil was made, or 40,986 
tons per day; 358 large nets; 2,100 herring-boats, &c. It is evident that 
these fisheries were very profitable. Granberg says, in his “ History of 
Gottenburg,” that the city of Gottenburg owed its flourishing condition, 
during the latter part of the eighteenth century, ‘to its East India 
trade and the herring fisheries.” According to the same author, the expor- 
tation of herring and oil gave a new impetus to commerce, and exercised 
a beneficial influence on all branches of trade and industry. The large 
sums of money which flowed into the country aided in furthering the 
development of many different industries, and that this had really 
been the case became still more evident when the source of wealth be- 
came exhausted with the close of the herring period. ‘To give a better 
idea of the flourishing condition of Bohus-liin when the fisheries were 
at their height, and of the misery and suffering caused by the decline 
of the fisheries, we will quote the following from a work on the Bohus- 
lin fisheries by Rev. O. Lundbecks: ‘“Any one who knew the coast of Bo- 
*It should be remembered that the Swedish ton holds 209.4 liters, and that the her- 
ring are measured in flat vessels, which were filled to repletion; and that during 
’ that summer people commenced to calculate how many fresh fish were required for a 
ton of oil, for large masses of herring were used for that purpose. By way of 
comparison we will mention that the total yield of the Scotch fisheries in 1880 was 
1,473,000 crans, of about 170.2 liters each (of which 1,201,105 crans fall to the share 
of the east coast, and 272,495 to that of the west coast). 
tIn the beginning of the period both floating and stationary nets were employed, 
but as the fish caught were not of the most valuable kind, they were soon replaced by 
common seines, which paid much better. 
