346 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. ,[6] 



compel a Norwegian or a Swede from the coast of Bohuslan to do the 

 kind of work a Dutchman will do. The national character, therefore, 

 plays a much greater part in the question as to the proper manner of 

 carrying on the fisheries than people hitherto have been inclined to be- 

 lieve. If, for instance, there is the least approach to sport in the man- 

 ner of carrying on the fisheries, this trade is eagerly sought by the fish* 

 ermen of such nations whose national character is inclined that way. 

 This was even the case with us at the time when the mackerel-fisheries 

 were principally carried on with hook and line. In America new meth- 

 ods of carrying on the fisheries, suited to a lively national character, 

 have sprung up. One of these methods is to equip a vessel which seeks 

 the schools of fish in the open sea, and with an ingenious apparatus 

 makes a rich haul in a very short time. The difficulty lies in the search- 

 ing for the schools, and it is therefore an object to get fast-sailing ves- 

 sels and experienced seamen. While this method of fishing, on account 

 of the change from the search and the fast sailing to the fishing itself, 

 is not near so tiresome as the Dutch so-called " great " fisheries, with their 

 slow manner of fishing with seines ; it also pays better and gives the 

 fishermen greater liberty. The greater perfection of the apparatus per- 

 mits them to make in a comparatively short time the same hauls as the 

 sleepy Dutch way of fishing makes in a week or longer. Even the 

 Scotch method of catching herring must be considered as sport com- 

 pared with the Dutch fisheries. 



It is generally known that our great Bohuslan herring-fisheries, as 

 well as the Iforwegian spring-herring fisheries, are secularly periodical, 

 that is, they last at most about half a century, and after that the her- 

 ring stay away fifty, sixty, or seventy years. The exact time cannot 

 be determined. The various herring periods, both of their presence on 

 and their absence from the coast, will, however, average fifty-six years. 

 Even in the western part of the Korth Sea, near Scotland, the herring- 

 fisheries are secularly periodical, but not to such an extent as in the 

 eastern part of the ISTorth Sea. The circumstance that on the east 

 coast of Scotland the fisheries can be carried on every year, the local- 

 ities or so-called fishing grounds changing from time to time, has a 

 very considerable influence on the manner of carrying on the fisheries. 

 It is evident that permanent fisheries will favor the development of 

 trades which require that the population should be educated to greater 

 skill in them through a long series of years. But when secular peri- 

 odical fisheries commence, the object is, of course, to obtain the best 

 possible result with as little exertion as possible in the way of learning 

 how to carry on the fisheries. People are generally found to be but 

 little acquainted with the fisheries. It is generally the rural popula- 

 tion which clubs together and gets the material which it deems the 

 most profitable ; and with this material they carry on the fisheries as 

 best they can. The fact is that these persons who all of a sudden and 

 without any previous experience engage in the fisheries have nothing 



