THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. Ql\ 



tacked by their larger colleagues, and can undisturbedly chase the young 

 fishes which have been placed in the water for them. No other fish 

 should be kept in the ponds, and special care should be taken that young 

 pike, which have been put in as food, do not escape the trout, a,nd grow 

 up to become merciless robbers." * 



The genus Salmo was formerly, by most ichthyologists, confounded 

 with the Trutta, although there are very characteristic differences be- 

 tween the two. The chief representatives of the former are the Salmo 

 hucho and the Salmo salvelinus. 



The hucho, (Salmo hucho,) also called Danube salmon, is a fish belonging 

 to the Salmonoidei, found in the territory of the Danube, in size and 

 weight exceeding the salmon. The hucho reaches a weight of 50 to 75 

 and occasionally 125 pounds avoirdupois. Its sexual organs are not 

 fully developed till it weighs about 5 pounds. It is not a migratory fish, 

 like the salmon, returning to the ocean every year, but only leaves 

 its dwelling-place during the spawning season to seek shallow and 

 gravelly places. It is found in Austria, in the whole territory of the 

 Danube, from Passau downward, but most frequently in the larger and 

 smaller tributaries of the Danube flowing down from the Alps, especially 

 in the Inn, the Salzach, Ager, Bnns, Steyer, Traun, as far as the falls of 

 the Traun, in the Traisen, Save, and Drau. It grows so rapidly that 

 its weight annually increases about 2£ pounds. Its flesh is somewhat 

 inferior to that of the salmon, but is nevertheless considered a great 

 delicacy. 



For the Austrian fisheries, the hucho is of the greatest importance on 

 account of the large extent of country — the Danube and its tributaries — 

 where it is found, and its rapid growth, produced through its great 

 voracity. It is so fond of bleak that it can easily be caught with a 

 hook baited with artificial fish of a whitish color. 



The hucho does not spawn in winter, like all the other Salmonoidei, but 

 usually in April and May. The eggs, sometimes 40,000 from one single 

 female fish weighing about 50 pounds, mature much sooner than those of 

 other salmon ; the young fish weigh about 1£ pounds after one year, 

 while specimens weighing 5 pounds in the third year are quite frequent. 



The chief causes of the decrease of the number of hucho are the weira 

 which recently have been built in the Upper Danube and its tributaries j 

 no passage ways having as yet been* left for them. 



The Salmo salvelinus, also called red trout, is a lazy fish, but little 

 inclined to prey upon other fish, and leaves the lakes during the spawn- 

 ing season. Its form is exceedingly variable, according to age, sex, and 

 location, so that ichthyologists have frequently considered one or the 

 other of the different forms in which it occurs as a separate species. It 

 may be recognized by the color of its belly, which is orange, and even 

 borders on vermilion, which colors are particularly bright in the male. 

 It is found in the clear mountain lakes of the Alps of Upper Austria, 

 Tyrol, Bavaria, Switzerland, as also in the Carpathian mountain lakes 



