6 
the actual knowledge possessed at the time regarding the 
life and habits of the fishes. 
Two circumstances have, however, deeply influenced this 
development : one when, in the province of Bohus, on the 
western coast of Sweden, in the beginning of the present 
century, a herring-fishery richer than any other, as it seemed, 
suddenly disappeared, leaving after it only poverty and 
distress. The measures taken by the Government were 
then directed towards the encouragement of other sea- 
fisheries, and Swedish fishing vessels went to the banks 
west of Skagen (the reef of Jutland), and further to 
Jaderen and to Storeggen, off the coast of Norway, 
where the Swedes showed the Norwegians the way to a 
difficult but profitable occupation. It is only within the 
last few years (since 1877) that the herring has again com- 
menced to find its way, in immense shoals, in amongst 
the rocky islands near the coast of Bohuslan. However, 
the fish does not come in there until the greater part of 
the shoals have spawned outside, and the object of the 
Government has, therefore, been to promote those modes of 
fishing by which the herring is caught on the open sea and 
while it is still in the very best condition. In this matter, 
Scotland has lent a helping hand to Sweden. A large 
number of Scotch drift-nets, ordered partly for the Govern- 
ment and partly for private persons, have been employed 
in this herring fishery ; and Scotch curers and smokers 
have, by private enterprise, been sent to Bohuslan. 
The other circumstance which has been of the greatest 
importance to the development of the Swedish fisheries is 
the improvement of the means of communication, namely 
the introducing of railways during the last thirty years. 
It will be easily understood of what consequence this has 
been to a country like Sweden, whose extent is so large in 
comparison with the thinly scattered population, because. 
