66 TEN YEAKS IN SWEDEN. 



rqr. 



Tobacco .... 6,100,000 



Hides .... 4,900,000 



Fish .... 4,500,000 



Coal .... 3,800,000 



The greatest foreign trade is with England. The total 

 value of export into that country in 1860 from Sweden was 

 42,000,000 rqr., which included more than half of their bar 

 iron and two-thirds of their corn. The value of the import 

 from England into Sweden in the same year was taxed at 

 16,500,000 rqr., which included 7,000,000 Ib. cotton wool 

 and 11,770,000 cubic feet of coal. The next greatest import 

 was from Lubeck. 



The burden or tonnage of the Swedish merchant fleet in 

 1860 was reckoned at 154,342 last, besides an inland fleet of 

 canal boats and coasters of 20,608 last. 



Another fruitful source of riches to this land seems hardly 

 made the most of. I allude to the fisheries. A curious 

 feature in the icthyology of these coasts is the appearance of 

 the herrings at irregular seasons, and their sudden disappear- 

 ance without any apparent cause. In the beginning of 

 1300 they appeared on these coasts in immense shoals, 

 but shortly disappeared, and few were again seen until 

 1556. 



The largest herring fishery ever known off these coasts was 

 in 1587. After that, however, they were not again seen in 

 any numbers till 1660; and in 1675, when the war with 

 Norway broke out, they altogether disappeared. In 1727 

 they came back, but there seems to have been then neither 

 men nor nets on the coasts to take them. They disappeared, 

 but returned again in 1747, remained off the coasts till 1808, 

 when they went away, and have never since been seen in 

 any great numbers. 



It is true there is every year a small catch of herrings off 

 the southern coast of Skane; and in Norway the herring 

 fishery is a yearly source of profit. The yearly export of 

 herrings from Norway even now reaches about 585,000 tunna, 



