HERRING. 
969 
body sweeps along, and in the press swim Herrings 
small (so-called lottsillar), middle-sized, and large — 
shotten Herrings, spawning Herrings, and Herrings not 
yet in breeding condition. 
The Herring is, no doubt, impelled, like other mig- 
ratory tishes, by a well-known instinct, to retrace its 
way to the waters which first afforded it a home; and 
when the spawning Herring has found a locality where 
the circumstances are congenial to reproduction, it re- 
turns there, as a rule, during the following years, so 
long as these circumstances continue. On the coast of 
Bohuslan it has been observed, both in former times" 
and recent years, that during the commencement of a 
so-called Herring-fishery period the fish as a rule come 
earlier year by year, but afterwards later and later, 
until, tired of the place, they neither return in such 
numbers, nor approach so near to the coast. They have 
found more favourable circumstances in another locality 
or farther out to sea — a more tranquil spawning-place, 
a more plentiful supply of food, and greater security 
both for themselves and their offspring. The Scotch 
fishermen too have learnt that they may sometimes shoot 
their drift-nets for Herring quite close in shore, but in 
other years must sail far out into the North Sea through- 
out the fishing-season. These variations, which have 
been called Herring-fishery periods, cannot be determined 
beforehand. Our historical knowledge thereof, defective 
as it is, by no means points to definite periods in fixed 
succession. That they may depend on meteorological 
and hydrographic, not to say cosmic, alterations, we 
cannot positively deny; but the periodicity of these al- 
terations is as yet unknown*. Century after century, 
ever since the eleventh, we have at least indications that 
the Herring has “come in” on the coast of Bohuslan. 
From the end of the twelfth century, at least down to 
1537, the Herring-fishery of the Sound, with Skanor and 
Falsterbo as its headquarters, was far famed; but Lund- 
berg has shown c that this was probably due, less to the 
greater abundance of the fish then, as compared with 
the present time, than to the commercial relations then 
obtaining, to the part taken in the fishery by the 
powerful Hanse Towns, and to the business-like manner 
in which they turned its resources to account. The 
Baltic Herring (Stromming) never appears in such vast 
numbers, and in this respect, as well as in its moderate 
size, more closely resembles the Shore Herring of Bo- 
huslan. But Herring-fishery periods of abundance and 
scarcity occur in the Baltic too, as Sundevall has 
shown of the island-belt of Stockholm d . He adduces 
the instances that the seine-fishery for Stromming was 
successful . 
unsuccessful 
successful . 
unsuccessful 
at Nynas 
up to 1825 incl., 
. 1826 — 1839, 
. 1840—1849, 
. 1850 et seqq., 
Arsta 
. . . 1828, 
1829—1841, 
1842—1851, 
1852 . . . , 
Forsvik 
. . . 1834, 
1835 — 1843, 
1844—1851, 
1852 . . . , 
“so that each new period of plenty or scarcity sets in 
some years later, the farther the locality is situated 
within the island-belt.” 
Ekstrom gives the following description of the Baltic 
Herring’s life in the island-belt of Morko: “In spring, 
as soon as the ice has broken up, and cleared away in 
some degree, the Stromming ascends from the depths 
where it has wintered. It rises so near the surface as 
to be carried along by any storm or gale. When it has 
come so near the coast that it does not wish to advance 
any further, a halt is made, the whole shoal turning 
round with military precision, and facing the wind. 
Thus it remains, almost motionless, until the wind 
changes and blows from the coast. It now turns again 
and faces the wind and the shore, but draws nearer the 
land to seek suitable stations. If it has drifted to a 
strange coast, it roves along the shore until it comes to 
places that seem convenient for the spawning and as a 
home during the summer. It now stays in their neigh- 
bourhood, roving about, now farther from land, now 
closer in shore, according to the direction of the wind, 
for on its wanderings from place to place it invariably 
swims against the wind or current, except, as mentioned 
above, when it drifts in spring to the coast. This mig- 
ration, which depends on the direction of the wind and 
the set of the current when the ffsh ascends from the 
depths, renders the fishery more or less productive on 
different coasts .... Among these islands at any rate, 
such has always been the case. The experience of many 
years has taught the fisherman that, if the ice breaks 
up during a south-westerly gale, which is usually of 
long duration at this time of year, and which sets into 
a See Fagr^us, Trangrumsacten (1784), p. 129. 
b “Bruckner assumes a periodic variation in the heat radiatecj by the sun, and thus explains the variations of temperature, of atmo- 
spheric pressure, and of the rainfall. The thirty-five years’ period has nothing to do with the number of sunspots.” Kremser, Meteorolo- 
gische Zeitschrift (Wien), 1891, p. 228. 
c Det stora sillfishet i Slcane under medeltiden ocli nyare tidens borjan , Autiqv. Tidskr. f. Sverige, Del. 11, No. 2. 
d Stockholms Lans Kongl. Hushallningssallskaps Handlingar, 6:te Haftet (1855), p. 187. 
