100 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 
the experience of our former herring periods and the great herring 
fisheries in foreign countries have shown in the most incontrovertible 
manner that the herring fisheries may be greatly furthered and bene- 
fited by administrative measures, and that the aid and intervention of 
the government are absolutely necessary, if a great branch of industry 
such as these fisheries is to be raised to its proper height, especially in 
places like Bohus-lin where the beginning, development, and close of 
‘the fisheries are (as. to time) comprised in comparatively narrow limits, 
I consider it proper to describe those measures which are required in 
order to further the fisheries; although it will, of course, be impossible, 
owing to the extent and the peculiar difficulties of the work, to give, in 
the near future, a detailed description of the scientific investigations 
regarding the herring and the herring fisheries, which, with government 
aid, I have carried on without many interruptions since the beginning 
of July, 1873. It must be borne in mind that even those investiga- 
tions which, with much greater aid from the government, have been 
carried onin Norway since 1861, and in Germany since 1871, have not yet 
been brought to a close, even after the purely theoretical and practical 
difficulties connected with the sea fisheries had been overcome; although 
the object in view was more limited, a greater number of persons were 
engaged in the investigations, and the difficulties were not so great. 
Since there is good reason to believe that the present herring period 
will not last longer than forty years, and as it is well known how 
slowly such an industry develops, when left entirely to itself, and how 
hard it is to correct existing abuses, especially in places like Bohus-lin, 
where these herring periods come at very irregular intervals and as- 
sume a different character according to the different natural conditions, 
it is all the more necessary to direct the efforts from the very beginning 
into the proper channel, which will develop the fisheries to the greatest 
possible degree, and which will cause the least trouble and inconvenience 
both during the fishing period and toward and after its close. 
The measures that should be taken should relate to the fisheries, and 
the transportation, preparation, and sale of fish. 
As regards the fisheries, it is of the utmost importance that they should 
commence as soon as possible after the fish have come near the coast 
(have “landed”). For this reason fishing with drag-nets should be car- 
ried on on a comparatively limited scale, with government aid, so as to 
ascertain whether the herring have really approached the coast; a 
fact which is of course of the greatest importance both for fishermen 
and scientists (see my memorial on experiments with drag-nets of Feb- 
ruary 12,1878). As an implement for carrying on the herring fisheries 
on a large scale these nets should not be encouraged, at least not beyond 
the use which has been made of them during this and the past century. 
These nets are economicaily the least advantageous of all implements 
used in the herring fisheries, and should therefore only be employed 
where no other convenient implement can be obtained, especially as 
