VIII.-REPORT OF THE SEA-FISHERIES OF THE LÄN OF GÖTE

BORG AND BOHUS IN THE YEAR 1877.*

BY GERHARD VON YHLEN.

A. THE GREAT FISHERY.

The Skrejd fishery.t-Thirty-seven vessels with 322 crew engaged in this fishery. According to statements from Norway the average earnings per man amounted to $157.17, equivalent to 1,386 codfish, sold at 11 cents per "round fish." This distant fishery caused considerable losses of implements and of one man's life.

The Storeggen fishery, during the summer season, was carried on by 11 vessels with 144 crew. The average earnings per man were $173.63. Scarcity of fish and rough weather caused the products to be so small.

The Jæderen fishery was carried on by 32 craft with 388 crew. The earnings, at a low estimate, average $128.17 per man. To obtain complete statistics of this fishery is, as previously remarked, more difficult than is the case with those above, the products not being sold to dealers, but generally shared ("bytt") between the fishermen, and sold by them in small lots.

One craft from Gullholmen, with 11 crew, was totally lost in this fishery during a gale in the month of August. She was insured in the Fishermen's Association.

The Jutland Reef was visited by 30 fishing smacks, with 254 crew. The average earnings per man were about $124.38.

The Kattegat fishery was carried on with 57 craft and 327 crew. The average earnings per man were about $91.80.

Besides these fisheries, several vessels resorted to various other fishing banks, and it appears that the Skrejd fishery in winter time, and fishery on the reef during the summer, secure the best fares. One has in this way arrived at a gross profit of $3,105 for 8 men.

The market places for each fishing craft are stated in the tables, and from them may be seen that every year more vessels come to Norwegian ports for a market. The Norwegian merchants, who thoroughly understand this business-which cannot be said of the Swedish merchantshave already found their advantage in furnishing loans to the outfitting of Swedish bank vessels; and the Norwegian "customers-system" is not far from being introduced in Bohus-Län.

*Translated by Josua Lindahl, Ph. D.

The cod-fishery off Aalesund, Norway.—(J. L.)

The Norwegian merchants buy the fish "round" from the Swedish fishermen, and dress it and cure it on shore.-(J. L.)

The measured craft are registered at a tonnage calculated according to Rule II.* All others have been treated as stated in my previous reports. The herring fishery and other occupations have prevented me from measuring all of them. Twenty-four new craft have this year been added to the fishing fleet. The summer fishery in larger fishing smacks on the Jutland Reef is growing more important every year. Market is generally sought in the southern ports of Norway.

The Fishermen's Association, besides having suffered from the loss of the above craft, met with heavier losses than ever before through the destruction of apparatus in the Skrejd and Storreggen fisheries. The assessment levied to meet these losses was, for the banking vessels, 8.4 per cent. of their insured value.

In consequence of this, and on account of the inequality in risk, it was resolved at a meeting of the Insurance Association, January 21, that a special section of the association be formed that will grant insurance only for total loss, and not undertake to indemnify for damages to vessels or for loss of apparatus.

This is the final aim of the association toward which it now seems to have approached one step nearer. When the association was formed, eight years ago, the loss of one gang of trawl-lines or of one anchor would have paralyzed the whole boat's crew. This is now no more the case in any degree worth mentioning.

B. THE MACKEREL FISHERY.

The supply of fish was almost equal to that of the previous year. Price and demand also were about the same.

Mackerel was sent to Stockholm in ice, but this undertaking proved a financial failure. The railroad freight for the heavy ice-boxes, and the low price of mackerel in Stockholm, where this nutritious fish is not ap preciated, interfered with the efforts to supply the capital with this seafish in a fresh condition in summer time. It will remain a mere object of desire, until the railroad administration will furnish American refrig erator-cars. It paid well, however, to ship ice-packed mackerel to Christiania, and this undertaking met with a cheerful approval from the Norwegians.

The preserving of mackerel in oil and its marinating are still praeticed. The products of Edward Nilsson, of Grebbestad, are of superior quality, and the best of all that are made in the Län.

The "bankers" from Oroust still use mackerel-nets for catching bait. The losses, also, in this fishery have been unusually heavy, and contributions have been leviedto the amount of 6.6 per cent. of the insured value.

The hook-and-line ("dörj") fishing is gradually being abandoned, and during the last three years has given insignificant returns for the labor.

* In English register tons, "accurate tonnage," outside measurement.

C.-THE WINTER FISHERY.

The requirement of this fishery being open water, it is obvious that as during the winter of 1877 the "Skärgård" was ice-bound for three months, the products of that year were materially reduced. The autumn, with constant supply of fresh herring-bait and unusual abundance of fish, especially cod, gave full compensation as far as quantity is regarded; but the cheap herring which filled the markets, and could be bought for next to nothing, depressed the price of the greater fish as well as of other victuals, which fell in price by 25 per cent., and thus the fishermen earned less than they had calculated. Since the erection of the fishhall in Göteborg, the price of fish has never been as low as in the fall of 1877.

The railroad statistics are not at my disposal, but I know from reliable sources that the transportation of cod and haddock was many times larger during last fall than ever before.

Two men perished in this fishery.

Villages in the Southern "Skärgård," that some years ago adopted fishing with trawl-line in larger decked boats, are energetically increasing this business. The same method was last year adopted by the Wrangö fishermen too, who now are running three such boats.

Asperö is the only place where, on account of want of a suitable harbor, the old method of fishing in open boats must still be continued.

The Hönö fishermen have adopted the Danish flounder-seine, and are succeeding well. This implement is managed from a boat in the open sea, and can be used everywhere where flounders occur. It is a sort of trawl-net, but simpler and smaller, as well less yielding as less injurious to the fishery. It is urged by some that the trawl-net ought to be prohibited.

D. THE HERRING AND SPRAT FISHERIES.

a. The herring fishery.-Since the last herring-period, which ended in the year 1808, this fishery has never been so productive as during the fall of 1877 and winter of 1878. A great ingress of sea-herring appeared last fall in the northern parts of the Län, and the herring remained there until in the month of March. The first ingress consisted of "lodd-herring," which was obtained in the district of Fjellbacka, in the beginning and middle of November. By the 17th or 18th of November the lodd-herring had expelled the sprats, or mixed with them, so that the hauls contained almost exclusively lodd herring. Now the schools filled all fjords, and one could literally lock in as much herring as he could sell. The uncountable swarms of sea-gulls, especially the hyperborean "Rinkja," Larus tridactylus, indicated that these schools were something different from the schools of lodd-herring generally visiting the coast. Also, the Wäderö and Sotö Fjords had throughout the autumn presented the spectacle of large schools of herring followed by the common "herring-followers," viz, whales and sea-gulls.

By the end of November lodd-herring was discovered in the district of Strömstad; and Koster fjord also displayed "herring-signs" on a large scale, even more so than the southern fjords.

All observations indicated that this ingress into Koster Fjord had passed by the north of Wäderö.

Almost simultaneously lodd-herring was discovered also north of the Koster Islands, as far as to Hvalerö.

Everywhere the herring came from the south and went northward. Already about November 20 "great-herrings" were occasionally found among the lodd-herring in the district of Fjellbacka; they were 12 inches long and upwards, full of "inmeat," that is, roe and milt, perfectly mature and ready for spawning.

November 28 a few barrels of almost exclusively such herring were caught in a small seine at the Wäderö pilot-station. On December 1 and following days so much of this great-herring was obtained among the lodd-herring in the inner bays of Fjellbacka that people began salting for household use, and fishermen from the district of Kungshamn, who had come all the way up here to fish outside the island, got exclusively greatherrings in their seines. Such was the case with one man from Smögen, who, December 1, fished at Wedholmen, and with the Fjellbacka fishermen at Trinisla and Florö on December 3, 4, and 5.

On December 12 great-herring was found at North Dyngö, where 25 barrels were caught in one haul, and shortly afterward great-herring was found in every fjord in the "Skärgård" of Fjellbacka, all the way up to Grebbestad. The main body of these schools consisted of the same big "inmeat-herring" as that caught at Wäderö. Many of these herrings had the roe and milt running. But also herring which had already spawned were met with, and immature herring with some fat still left; and as a rule the herring was very much mixed.

The same kind of herring was caught in Bottna Fjord December 10, and on the 16th it occurred in great packs as well in this fjord as in other branches of Sote Fjord. It was remarked-and this coincides with my own observations-that these southern schools mainly consisted of bigger individuals, and that more empty herring was here found in the hauls than farther to the north in the fishery.

On the 26th and 27th a large school entered into the so-called Hollander's Bay, at Smögen, where 1,200 barrels were inclosed in one lork; nearly all of it was empty herring.

In the fishery of Strömstad no great-herring was seen until December 20, but then within a couple of days they had entered, also here, into every fjord all the way up in Säcke Fjord, and in the waters bordering on Norway. This herring had spawn, though very little developed.

About New Year's day the great-herring was standing outside, and lodd herring inside in most every fjord, from Smögen to Vagnarbergan extent of more than 10 mil*-accompanied by the usual herring fol

*1 mil 6.64 statute miles.