[7] THE SPRING HERRING FISHERIES OF NORWAY. 133- 
As I have already observed, there was hardly any decrease in the 
size of the schools of herring in the northern district, not even at Sdnd- 
more. The total yield in the northern district was 255,000 barrels, and: 
at Séndmore 70,000 barrels. 
In 1870, when the fisheries were short and irregular, the yield went 
down as low as 80,000 barrels in the northern district, whilst at Sond- 
more it probably amounted to 25,000 barrels. The superintendent says 
in his report for 1870: “The meteorological conditions were on the 
whole more favorable than is generally the case, and the almost total 
failure of the fisheries must therefore be ascribed to the small number 
of herring which had approached the coast, although sea birds and 
whales, which are considered sure indicators of the occurrence of her- 
ring, Showed themselves in the same numbers as during previous years.” 
A change was also noticed in the quality of the herring. At Sdénd- 
fiord the herring seem not to have been of such even and good quality 
as at Nordfiord and Séndmoére. I gather these facts partly from the 
reports of the superintendents and partly from other sources to which 
Thad access. It is a significant fact that the mingling of different 
kinds of herring took its beginning in the southern part of the district. 
In 1871 it was reported that the herring were of the least even quality 
near Bueland, the southernmost of our more important fishing stations. 
In the northern part of the district and near Séndmére the herring were 
of the usual good quality. In the northern district 61,000 barrels of fish 
were caught, and at Séndmére 8,000. The yield, however, was smaller 
than it would otherwise have been, on account of storms, the severe cold 
of winter which set in exceptionally early, and other unfavorable cir- 
cumstances. 
What had been already indicated by the uneven size of the herring 
during the preceding years took place in 1872. There were hardly any 
fisheries in the whole southern portion of the northern district as far 
as Bremanger, on the very coast where formerly there had been the 
best fishing in the whole district It also appears that the number of 
herring caught near Froe Island, southwest of Bremanger, was remark- 
ably small, and that the fish were nearly all of small size. In 1871 the 
average number of herring caught near Froe Island was 504 per 
“standard barrel,” whilst in 1872 it was 522. In the other portion of 
the northern district the yield was 62,000 barrels, and near Sdéndmore 
115,000, an unusually good yield for these northern latitudes, princi- 
pally owing to the exceptionally favorable weather. These facts show 
‘that great masses of herring still come to these coasts. In spite, how- 
ever, of the approach of such masses of herring, there seemed to be 
some indications that the same fate awaited these fisheries as the south- 
ern ones, the average number of herring per “standard barrel” being 
540, whilst in 1871 it was 530. This was first observed at Séndfiord, 
therefore at the southernmost point of the district. Herring of the 
same size as those caught in former years could only be counted on 
