[9] BOHUS-LAN SEA FISHERIES AND THEIR FUTURE. 97 
obtain at a cheap price a wholesome article of animal food. The im- 
portance of the railroads to the herring fisheries increases in the de- 
gree as people accustom themselves to use herring in the household 
and as the railroads open up new districts. As the herring are prin- 
cipally obtained on the central and northern coasts of Bohus-lin dur- 
ing the cool season, when they can, of course, best be transported fresh, 
the lack of suitable railroad connections and a good outer harbor in 
each of these portions of the coast render it necessary at present to 
send them all the way to Gottenburg (a journey sometimes occupying 
several days), in order to ship them to other places in the country by 
rail. The herring, therefore, are liable to be spoiled, and, even under 
the most favorable circumstances, their prices will be raised and their 
usefulness as a cheap and wholesome article of food for the masses will 
be considerably diminished. 
Contrary to the opinion here expressed that the herring fisheries 
might be improved principally by opening up new markets for their 
products and improving the means of communication, leaving the rest 
to follow the natural course of their development, some people have 
advanced the opinion that now, at the very beginning of the herring 
period, before suitable markets for our goods have been found, and be- 
fore we have a body of.men trained and experienced in all that per- 
tains to the herring fisheries and the herring trade, we should use 
new and expensive apparatus—drag-nets after the Scotch and Dutch 
model. But as drag-net fisheries in the open sea require a larger capi- 
tal than we can afford at the present time, and demand skill and ex- 
perience in preparing herring as well as a ready sale of the fish at a 
price which will cover the expenses incurred in procuring new appa- 
ratus, and as, moreover (as we know from the last fishing period), such 
fisheries cannot compete with the seine fisheries (more especially at 
this time, when the herring period is just beginning and the herring ap- 
proach the coast earlier in the season), it will need no further proof to 
show how impractical are these opinions. At any rate, there is time 
enough to introduce drag-net fisheries on a large scale during that part 
of the herring period when the herring come to the coast later in the 
Season; when only fish of a poorer quality are caught in the seines; 
when more capital has accumulated; when our people have become 
more skilled in preparing herring,* and when new markets have been 
opened for the products of our fisheries. Nor would it be wise, at the 
present time at least, to excite the competition of foreign nations, as the 
consequences of such a step might be detrimental to the prospects of 
our fisheries. The drag-net fisheries in the open sea are free to all, and 
*The introduction of the Scotch fishing methods and apparatus demands as careful 
a preparation of the herring as that in vogue in Scotland, if the herring caught in 
drag-nets are to bring a reasonable price; for fresh herring can with us only be sold 
in comparatively small quantities at such a price as to pay the extra expense incurred 
in buying new and expensive fishing apparatus. 
S. Mis. 29 7 
