632 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



fishing-privileges. No one is to be prosecuted unless on the complaint of 

 privilege-holders, their representatives, or one of the lawful overseers. 



An ordinance of January 11, 1871, contains more detailed regulations 

 on the formation of fishing-associations and on the establishment of 

 spawning places and of places of safety. A minimum length has only been 

 prescribed for Trutta lacustris Agass., Trutta trutta Lin., (7| inches,) and 

 for Trutta fario and Thymallus vulgaris Miss., (5| inches.) These fish, 

 with the exception of the last mentioned, must not be caught from Octo- 

 ber 20 to January 20 j all others may be taken, as well as the crawfish, 

 from April 15 till the end of May. 



The salmon-fisheries are to be regulated by future laws. 



Fishing at night-time is prohibited, but exceptions may occasionally 

 be made ; the number of fish-weirs in public waters is to be limited as 

 much as possible 5 the regular width of meshes and openings is fixed at 

 0.78 inch ; spears and guns can only be employed in exceptional cases ; 

 automatic fish -traps connected with mills or other water-works are pro- 

 hibited. 



The public treasury may offer prizes for the best piscicultural estab- 

 lishments and for artificially hatched fish. 



-Saxony. — In Saxony, a new fishing-law was promulgated on the 15th 

 October, 1868. By this law, the right to fish in running waters and 

 their tributaries — if not otherwise settled by government grant or pri- 

 vate title — belongs, a, in the original portions of the kingdom, to the 

 proprietors of the shore as far as this extends, and, if both shores do 

 not belong to the same person, as far as the middle of the stream ; b, in 

 Upper Lusatia, to the landed proprietors ; c, in the rivers Elbe, Mulde, 

 Elster, and in the Grodler and Elster Canals, to the state. If the fish- 

 ing-privilege belongs to a community, or to the members of the commu- 

 nity at large, or to a privileged class of citizens, or to a corporation, it 

 can only be exercised through renting it or by appointing a special 

 fisherman. Fisheries can only be leased to a corporation of professional 

 fishermen or to one individual. Fishing-permits are issued, but only to 

 such persons as are not privilege-holders, lessees, or professional fisher- 

 men. All persons, including holders of privileges and manufacturers, 

 are prohibited from hindering the migration of fish by permanent 

 arrangements, and manufacturers must, as far as practicable, make 

 passages in their weirs. Also, in other ways, the law endeavors to 

 harmonize the water-privileges with the interests of fishing and pisci- 

 culture. Various ordinances regulate the employment of injurious ap- 

 paratus, the time when fishing is prohibited, the minimum weight of 

 fish that can be caught, &c. So far, only one ordinance has been passed 

 in regard to these matters, that of October 1G, 1868. 



Dr. Fric, in his report, says that the carrying-out of the law leaves 

 much to be desired. Many fishermen seem scarcely to be aware of the 

 existence of a law at all, and are still waiting for one. The fixing of 

 the time when salmon are to be protected has been deferred till treaties 



