[3] THE HEREING FISHERIES OF SWEDEN. 731 



October 25, 1880, gave the spawning season of tbe sea herring- in ac- 

 cordance with my view, but Mr. von Yhlen not only held to his erro- 

 neous and fully refuted opinion, but even gave more opinions of a similar 

 character, showing that even in his published reports he does not blush 

 to deliberately make statements which he knows not to be true. As 

 regards the common opinion — also defended by my opponents — that the 

 principal characteristic of the great Bohuslan coast herring fisheries 

 was that they related to spawning fish, I stated emphatically that this 

 had not been the case during the greater portion of the preceding her- 

 ring period, and that probably there would be no difference in this re- 

 spect during the period recently begun, I also advanced a theory that, 

 as a general rule, fisheries for spawning fish occurred about the middle 

 of a Bohuslan herring period — changing my views in accordance with 

 actual facts— whilst my opponents endeavored to chan^ these facts and 

 to make them agree with their preconceived opinion. The undoubtedly 

 correct statement naade by me in the beginning of 1879 that the herring 

 fisheries which commenced on the northern i^art of the Bohuslan coast 

 during the winter 1877-'78 were not fisheries for spawniug herring, has, 

 strange to say, been interpreted by Professor Smitt (who in 1880 took 

 my opinion to be correct) in such a manner that I seem to have denied 

 that a new fishing period had commenced during that winter. 



As regards the herring which spawn towards the end of winter and 

 generally in the beginning of spring, and which in comparatively small 

 quantities are caught among the other herring, several opinions have 

 been advanced. Some believe that these are the older and stronger 

 indi\'iduals of the coast race of herriug (spawning in spring) — Prof. S. 

 Nilsson and others — whilst others think that they are a separate and 

 more pelagian form of herring (if. ttidegren), belonging to the fauna 

 of the eastern Skagerack. Others again suppose that, like the sea 

 herriug spawning in autumn, they are herring whi^h, during the fishing 

 period, have immigrated from the iS^orth Sea, in which lat er case they 

 may either form a separate race of herring (my own view) or be simply 

 the older among the sea herring {F. Tryboni) which spawn in autumn. 

 The opiuion advanced by Professor Nilsson at one time (in the begin- 

 ning of 1879) seems to me to offer a simple explanation of the case, and 

 therefore is admissible ; I consequently endeavored to make it agree 

 with the circumstances of the Bohuslan herring fisheries, both between 

 and during the herring periods. On the coast of Bohuslan, and on some 

 other coasts, rich herring fisheries generally commence with small and 

 inferior herring, which seem to have their home near the coast; and 

 only after the fisheries have been continued for some time are herring 

 caught, which come from a greater distance. This fact may be explained 

 either by the herring living near the coast having to give way to the 

 great masses of herring coming from the sea, or by supposing that 

 both these kinds of herring are enticed or driven towards the coast by 

 one and the same cause, in which case those nearer to the coast are, of 



