602 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



collect the accounts of the Austrian fisheries, and has adopted the 

 schedules which were recommended by a select committee. 



With a view to this, the statistics of the several species of fish, fishing- 

 implements, as well as the fishing-seasons given in Heckel and Kner's 

 work, " Die Susswasserfisehe der Ostreichischen Monarchies are to be 

 thoroughly examined and revised by the agricultural societies of the 

 various provinces ; and it is to be ascertained what is the average price 

 of fishing-implements, how many persons are employed in the fisheries, 

 how many of each kind are on an average caught per annum, what 

 has been the influeuce of artificial hatching on the increase of fish in 

 depopulated waters, at what seasons the different kinds of fish spawn, 

 and, finally, what proportion the actual season of fishing in fresh- waters 

 bears to the legally prescribed fishing season. 



Exact or even approximately reliable data must not, however, be 

 expected, as the agricultural societies have not the means of obtaining 

 such. To obtain fishing-statistics, it is indispensable that a law should 

 be passed requiring correct lists of all the fisheries, of the waters where 

 they are carried on, and of the different fishing-privileges, in the same 

 manner as a receut law ordered the registering of all the existing hy- 

 draulic constructions and water-privileges. On these official lists, the 

 statistical reports of competent men should be based. 



Mr. Hey, a forest-inspector of Lolling in Cariuthia, has, from very 



incomplete material, which he had increased and corrected as much as 



possible from personal observations, made a report on the fisheries of his 



province, which has been published in the reports of the Cariuthia 



Agricultural Society for 1872, Nos. 18 and 19. According to this report, 



the following is the area of the fishing waters in Cariuthia : 



Acres. 



Large lakes , - • 12, 773 



Small lakes and ponds 706 



Rivers and brooks 8, 912 



Total 22,401 



The quantity of fish which might be caught if there were sufficient pro- 

 tection against thieving and the present reckless system of plunder, is, 

 for running waters, estimated at 50 pounds avoirdupois per annum to 

 1£ acres, for lakes and ponds at 87£ pounds, making a total of 7,483,600, 

 including 617,500 pounds of fine fish valued at 835 for every hundred 

 weight, (Austrian : equal to 123J pounds avoirdupois,) and 0,866,106 

 pounds common fish at $15 per Austrian hundredweight. This gives 

 a total annual revenue of $258,394. The expenses for implements 

 salaries, aud taxes are estimated at $55,2S0, making the net rev- 

 enue $203,114, or $9 per acre. These estimates appear by no means 

 too high if compared with the revenues of other countries where the 

 fisheries are well protected. 

 The Deutsche Fishereiverein has also given its full attention to fish- 



