620 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ceived especial grants. In some fishing-regulations, as in the case of 

 those relating to the gulfs of Dantzig and of Memel, those persons are 

 allowed to fish who possess the privilege either by grants from the local 

 authorities, by special arrangement with the treasury, or by prescription. 

 The law of March 2, 1850, says that fishing-privileges in private waters, 

 in as far as they are based on any relations of servitude, may be abol- 

 ished by buying off, at the motion of either the landlord or of the one 

 under obligations, in accordance with the principles of the agrarian law 

 of June 7, 1821. The net annual revenue is to be estimated by compe- 

 tent persons, who have to take into account the average profit derived 

 from the enterprise by those conducting it during the last ten years. 

 The privilege can then be bought off either by payment of the annual 

 iuterest or of the appraised value. In case the person under obliga- 

 tions has signified his willingness to buy off a privilege, the one hold- 

 ing it is entitled to have his fishing-implements likewise bought at their 

 true value. 



Some provincial laws contain still farther fishing-regulations. Accord- 

 ing to those of the former Saxon provinces, fishing in the rivers Elbe, 

 Mulde, Elster, Saale, and Unstrut is a royal prerogative. Fisheries 

 belonging to towns or villages are to be rented out for the benefit of the 

 community, or are to be carried on by two citizens successively, limited 

 in this privilege to two days in the week. 



In East and West Prussia, the right to fish in public .waters can 

 only be lost by its not having been exercised for forty years. 



In the Prussian Rhine Province, especially in the district of Treves, 

 the government alone has the right to fish in navigable rivers, while in 

 private streams the persons owning the shores have this right. (Article 

 538 of the civil law, law of the 17th day of Floreal, year X of the 

 Erench Republic, royal cabinet order of June 23, 1838.) In navigable 

 rivers, the governments rent out the fisheries. 



The fishing-regulations, and the manner in which they are carried out 

 differ in the several provinces. 



The ordinance of 1669, Tit. 31, for the territory on the left bank of the 

 Rhine, prohibits fishing during the spawning season, the employment of 

 certain implements and methods of capture, and the taking of several 

 species of fish below a certain size. 



Special fishing-regulations were made in 1845^ partly for different prov- 

 inces, such as Posen and West Prussia, partly for certain waters, such as 

 the gulfs of Dantzig and Memel, in 1859 for the province of Pomerania, 

 others for the district of Coslin, and in 1865 for the district of Stralsund. 

 Any closing of the fish-waters, hindering the migration of fish, espe- 

 cially salmon and sturgeon weirs and eel-traps, are prohibited, unless the 

 government has granted special privileges for using such contrivances. 

 New appliances disturbing the migration of fish cannot be permitted, 

 unless they have been rendered harmless, or can be made so by cer- 

 tain conditions imposed on the owners. The police-authorities have 

 to see to it that the conditions imposed, when privileges for such appli- 



