THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. 601 



Ice has repeatedly during winter been sent by railroad to Vienna from 

 our Alpine lakes ; aud if people were acquainted with the well-known 

 easy methods of preserving ice, fish could be sent fresh to Vienna even 

 in the height of summer. 



The construction of a proper fish-market in Vienna, which has been 

 suggested by the committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the 

 rise in the price of provisions, would be greeted with joy as a welcome 

 beginning to improving the condition of the Austrian fisheries. 



10.— FISHERY-STATISTICS. 



In our Austrian Cataster* the fishing-waters have been treated in 

 a very superficial manner. The several lakes, rivers, streams, and 

 brooks have, it is true, been surveyed, aud their areas have been put 

 down ; but since water, as a general rule, is not subject to any land-tax, 

 the lakes, rivers, streams, and brooks have been thrown together with the 

 roads, marshes, rocks, rubbish, heaps of broken stones, sand-hills, and 

 other waste places, and have been given under the head of u unproductive 

 lands." t The area of our fishing-waters can, therefore, not be given 

 approximately, neither arranged according to their character, nor as a 

 whole, important as such a statement would be for statistical aud other 

 purposes. The ministry of agriculture has taken steps to have a special 

 survey taken aud published. 



There is, unfortunately, an almost entire want of accurate statistics 

 of the products of our fisheries. Czornig states that in 1801 the Aus- 

 trian fisheries produced 145,000,000 pounds offish, valued at $10,500,000; 

 but these figures are only the result of approximate estimates. They 

 give, however, some idea of the still considerable value of this portion 

 of our national wealth, which surely could, by good fishing-laws, be 

 increased many millions. 



There are no reliable statistical data as to the market-prices at the 

 capitals of all the provinces, and all that can be found are scattered 

 statistics from a few cities. 



It is an exceedingly difficult matter to gather the statistics of fish- 

 eries, since persons who have leased them are very loth to state the 

 exact truth with regard to the income derived therefrom, for fear that 

 their rent might be raised. The importance of such statistics for legis- 

 lation and other government measures is, however, daily becoming more 

 evident; for which reason the sixth international statistical congress, 

 which met at the Hague in September, 1S69, placed fishing-statistics 

 on its programme. 



In accordance with suggestious made by the above mentioned con- 

 gress, the Austrian central committee for statistics has resolved to 



* Tho record-book of the titles, boundaries, and ownership of lands. 



\ The law of May 24, 1869, No. 88, regarding land-tax, declares as free from this tax, 

 among other things, marshes, lakes, and ponds, in as far as they do not yield a revenue 

 from their fisheries, &c, as also the beds of rivers and brooks. 



