558 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



"6. From 1660 to 1680, thus lasting for twenty-one years; interval to next period, sixty- 

 six years. 



"7. From 1747 to 1808, thus lasting for sixty-two years; interval to next period, sixty- 

 eight years. 



"8. From November, 1877, to February, 1878. 



"The most important period was the above No. 7, especially during the last twenty years of 

 the last century. It lias been calculated that in some- years during that time the annual quantity 

 of Herring fished in Bohuslan amounted to at least 1,500,000 barrels. 



"During the six weeks January 1 to February J5, this present year, about 160,000 barrels of 

 fresh and salt Herring were shipped from the archipelago of Bohuslan to neighboring markets. 

 The fishermen and merchants are preparing largely for making big hauls when the Herring will 

 return in the fall, as is expected." 



As early as the middle of the last century one of the periods of scarcity was foretold by Prof. 

 Hans Strom, of Norway, who observed that the Herrings during the period they visited the coast 

 of Sondmor (1736-1756) came later and later every year, and predicted, in accordance with an old 

 tradition and the experience had at Stat, that the Herring fisheries of Sondmor would come to an 

 end. This really took place in Bohuslau, where it had been observed already towards the middle 

 of the last great fishery period that the Herrings came to the coast later and later every year, 

 which led people to fear that, as in times of old, the Herrings might again gradually leave the 

 Swedish coast. Somewhat later (1782) Strom compared the Bohuslan fisheries with those of 

 Norway, and, basing his opinion on their evident similarity, predicted that the end of the Bohus- 

 lan fisheries was near at hand. 



About ten years later Lybecker expresses himself more distinctly, as follows: "If with pro- 

 phetic eye we could see the future and predict the fate of the fisheries, we might say with a great 

 degree of probability that a change will take place soon. We know from history that when 

 Herrings or other fish of passage arrive near the coast later and later, and at the same time keep 

 farther and farther away from the coast, this means a change in the migrations of the Herrings, 

 aud may even point to their leaving the coast entirely. This has been the course of the Norwegian 

 herring fisheries, and even of the Swedish herring fisheries during their older periods, and in fact 

 with all those fisheries where fish of passage are the principal object, with the only exception of 

 the Scotch and English fisheries. ... If we take into consideration the roving nature of the 

 Herrings and the examples from olden times, it is highly probable that the Herrings will come 

 later every year, and finally leave our coast altogether." 



It had frequently been maintained that too much fishing and fishing with destructive appa- 

 ratus were the proper causes of the growing tardiness of the arrival of the Herrings and might even 

 lead to the complete cessation of the fisheries; and people therefore made futile attempts to obviate 

 this danger by legislation. As the ominous predictions regarding the herring fisheries were, how- 

 ever, not immediately fulfilled, they were almost forgotten; but when the herring fisheries came to 

 an end in the year 1808, people imagined that the Herrings arriving later and later every year fully 

 proved the assertion that they had been driven away by the imprudent actions of the fishermen. 

 It was said that refuse thrown into the water, and noise, had prevented the Herrings from coming 

 near to the coast, and they had spawned in the open sea, and had then, in consequence of the 

 languor aud weakness following the spawning, been driven towards the coast by storms. 



During the more recently closed Norwegian spring herring fisheries, it was, according to 

 Loberg, noticed, not without anxious forebodings, that the Herrings, which in the beginning of 

 the fishing period did not come near the coast till early in February, gradually came earlier and 



