574 THE HERRINGS DESERT THE COAST. 



barrel is supposed to contain about one thousand fish, 

 the aggregate would be something like 2,938,000,000 

 of herrings ! 



During the glut we are now speaking of (1747 to 

 1808), the Bohus fisheries were looked on as a second 

 El Dorado ; and as the government gave encouragement 

 to settlers, every nook and cranny, both on the islands 

 and on the coasts of the main land, were soon, as of old, 

 dotted with buildings of one kind or another. Indeed, 

 when the fisheries were in their glory, it was computed 

 that, independently of the inhabitants themselves, fifty 

 thousand strangers at the least took part in them. 



In 1808, as shown, the herrings once more left the 

 coast, and have never since revisited it in any considerable 

 numbers ; as a consequence, the extensive curing-houses, 

 which subsequent to the " Land-stotning" of 1717 had 

 again risen up as if by magic, soon disappeared altogether 

 or fell into a state of dilapidation and decay, and many 

 individuals who had invested their all in the fisheries 

 were reduced to want. 



The absence of the herrings from the Skiirgiird for the 

 past fifty or sixty years lias given rise to a great deal of 

 speculation. Few questions, indeed, have been more dis- 

 cussed. The reasons assigned by Swedish naturalists and 

 others, who were deputed by the government to investi- 

 gate the cause of the disappearance of the fish, were many 

 and weighty. Amongst the rest "The noise and uproar 

 in the Skiirgurd when the fisheries were flourishing, 

 caused by the tens of thousands of congregated people, 

 which noise in calm weather, or when the wind was oil' 

 the land, might be heard miles and miles out at sea; the 

 enormous quantity of refuse of all kinds cast out from 

 the curing and boiling-houses into the sea, which, on 

 sinking, destroyed all submarine vegetation, and masses of 

 \\hicli, resembling lloat ing islands and emitting a dreadful 



