[3] THE GREAT BOHUS-LAN HERRING FISHERIES. 101 
Sweden does not possess any places in the Skagerack and Northern Kat- 
tegat which are convenient for fishing with drag-nets. These nets are 
particularly ill adapted to periodical fisheries, such as those of Bohus- 
lin, as they, in proportion to the number of fish caught, require a much 
larger number of fishermen, whom it is difficult to supply with a suit- 
able living at the close of the fishing period. Drag-net fisheries on a 
comparatively small scale, however, for catching a more valuable kind 
of herring for smoking or to be sold fresh, carried on with such boats 
as can be found and with smaller cheap nets, prior to the beginning of 
the ordinary net fisheries in autumn, might possibly be more profitable, 
without involving the same difficulties. But for catching herring be- 
yond the outer coast it might prove highly valuable to have some experi- 
ments made with the purse seine (so highly prized by the Americans), 
an implement which, in contradistinction to the drag-net, is adapted to 
fishing both on the outer coast and in the narrow fiords, and to the catch- 
ing of a larger number of fish of different sizes. The introduction of 
these purse seines would, moreover, prove a great benefit by supplying 
the fishermen with fish suitable for bait. The use of the purse seine 
would make the transition to other fisheries at the end of a fishing period 
much easier than would be the case with the drag-net. In North 
America, of whose great fisheries we can learn so much, drag-nets are 
not used at all, whilst purse seines and seines are constantly used with 
the best results. 
Our rich coast fisheries in our fiords and inlets need proper regula- 
tion and an efficient coast-police, which would soon cause them to flourish 
more than ever before. 
Not only the herring fisheries on our outer coast, but our entire sea 
fisheries and navigation on the coast of Bohus-liin stand in urgent need 
of anumber of light-houses placed in suitable localities. The places which 
more than others need light-houses are (1) the northern entrance to Ud- 
devalla near the Islandsberg Cape, (2) the entrance to Kungshamn, (3) 
to Grebbestad- Krossekirrshamn, and (4) to the harbors inthe Koster fiord. 
To make the entrance to the last-named fiord passable at night-time, it 
would, however, be necessary not only to place a light-house at a suit- 
able point near the central portion of the fiord, but the so-called ‘ Kos- 
ter lights” should be moved to the southernmost point of the Koster coast, 
i. e., to Ramskdr. This measure has been talked of for a long time, and is 
urgently needed. The Koster fiord is not particularly adapted to her- 
ring fisheries during the dark season of the year, long after they have 
come to a close in the southern part of Bohus-lan, but numerous mer- 
chant vessels pass there on their way to and from Norway. Other light- 
houses than those mentioned may become necessary in time to come, 
but for the present those which have been enumerated will suffice. 
As the fishermen have to follow the herring from place to place in 
their wanderings, and as the fish have to be transported to the places 
where they are prepared, or to the markets, the intercourse between 
