THE SWEDISH HERRING-FISHERIES. 



571 



century beyond which it is needless to go back they, 

 in great measure, deserted the coast. In 1556, however, 

 there was a Land-stotning, as it is called ; that is, the 

 fish having emerged from the deeps their usual place 

 of resort appeared in incalculable numbers in the 

 Skilrgard, and this continued until 1587, a space of 

 thirty-one years, when they for the most part once more 

 absented themselves. 



SWEDISH FISHEKMEN. 



During the period of glut (from 1556 to 1587), the 

 fisheries are described as having been more productive 

 than at any other on record. We learn from the old 

 chronicles, indeed, that for the space of fifty or sixty 

 miles the shores of the main land and the adjacent 

 islands were studded with curing and salting houses, 

 many of them two or three stories high, and inhabited 

 by vast multitudes of people who had congregated there 

 from various and distant parts, and whose sole occupation 



