THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. 637 



The ministry of finance will make proper regulations for the assistance 

 which coast-guards and officers of the customs are to give in superin- 

 tending the fisheries and in hunting up persons who have violated the 

 laws. The ordinances will also decide how far the various communities 

 have to assist in supervising the transportation and sale of fish and 

 other water-products. Violations of the law are to be punished by fines 

 not to exceed $60, and $200 in case of the tunny-fisheries. 



The ordinances will also decide in what cases the implements of vio- 

 lators of the law shall be confiscated. 



Two-thirds of the money coming from fines and the sale of confis* 

 cated articles is to go to the officers or agents who have discovered the 

 violations, and one-third is to go to the public treasury or to special 

 benevolent funds. The harbor-officers, as well as the prefects, may be 

 present in court, in person or by proxy, when cases of violation of the 

 fishery-law are brought up, in order to express their views on the case 

 and to decide legal questions. 



Professional fishermen may form themselves into associations, and 

 elect from their number a board of directors, called " The trusty men of 

 the fisheries," (probi viri della pesca.) These men shall pass decisions 

 in private quarrels, shall assist in the superintendence of the fisheries, 

 and they are entitled to propose changes in the ordinances to the min- 

 istry, and to suggest new measures which, in their opinion, will be 

 beneficial to the industry. Special ordinances will prescribe the manner 

 in which associations are to be formed, what persons may be active and 

 honorary members, as well as rules for the guidance of the board of 

 directors, in cases laid before them. 



Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. — The Scandinavian countries, Den- 

 mark, Sweden, and Norway, have also regulated their fisheries, both 

 salt-water and fresh-water, during the last twenty years, by new laws ; 

 Denmark, 1857-'G0, 18C1, and 1867 ; Sweden, 1852 and 1869 ; and Nor- 

 way, 1854, 1863, and 1869. 



The many changes in the fishing-laws which have been made in these 

 countries during so short a period afford another proof of the difficulty 

 of passing such definite laws as will answer all practical purposes. 



Russia. — Of the Eussian fisheries in the Dniester, Dnieper, the Volga, 

 and the Black Sea, it is said " that laws, discipline, and work are so 

 strictly and suitably regulated that other nations which consider them- 

 selves far more civilized might learn a great deal from them." 



United States. — Even in the United States of North America, where 

 hitherto the large lakes, streams, and seas have been plundered shame- 

 fully, and with most ingeniously-contrived nets, the people have now 

 become afraid of exhausting their wealth of fish, and are endeavoring 

 to bring about order and a system of protection by laws, treaties, and 

 other measures. The last reports of the commissioners of the different 

 States, whose duty it is to see to the proper execution of the laws, to 



