THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. 645 



are here called, " Scbranne," (Old-Gerinan;) arid the foreman of the jury, 

 appointed by the community, gives the answers in the name of the 

 jurors, and all the assembled citizens of the community or members of 

 the association. If these answers meet with no objections from the 

 assembly, they are considered as "judgments." The fish-court is opened 

 by the judge with the well-known introductory questions, "Is this the 

 right hour, day, and time that I should open the fish-court" on the Traun 

 Lake, as has been done from times of old?" The foreman answers, 

 " Your honor, the judge of the fish-court, since you ask me whether this 

 be the right time that you should hold a fish-court in the county of Ort, 

 I solemnly affirm that this is the day, hour, and time that such fish- 

 court should be held, seeing that this is St. James's Day." In this man- 

 ner, the fishing-laws, as they have been in force on this lake from time 

 immemorial, are given, with occasional later additions or changes, by 

 " question and judgment,-"' on every article of the law, on each command- 

 ment or probibition. 



From all these old documents we see that the fishermen's trade in its 

 connection with agriculture was organized in a practical and liberal 

 manner, with much of that spirit of self-government which does not 

 shrink from energetic measures whenever these are considered neces- 

 sary and practical. 



The oftener attempts are made, on the one hand, especially in the larger 

 waters, streams, and lakes, to enforce the royal prerogatives in the matter 

 of fishing-privileges, and the more, on the other hand, the ownership of 

 the fisheries by the monarch incites his disposition to control them, 

 the more does this autonomous legislation of the lower classes dis- 

 appear. From the sixteenth century, we find the fisheries more and 

 more regulated by state legislation, by rules and regulations for cer- 

 tain provinces or for certain waters, and from time to time measures 

 taken to make them more productive, and to prevent the reckless plun- 

 dering of the waters by the lower classes. 



Some of these government fishing-regulations date very far back. 

 Instead of merely enumerating a great many of these provisions with 

 their date, we shall attempt to give a fuller review of some of the laws 

 enacted by the Upper Austrian government. 



But few traces are found in these regulations of the fishing-priv- 

 ileges of olden times, when they formed an integral part of the common 

 rights of each community to field and forest, because these societies, 

 or, as they are usually called in Austria, these " neighborhoods," 

 which had fields and meadows in common, still retained the right of 

 fishing in those waters which were the property of the people at large. 

 In the larger waters, especially in the lakes, the right to fish was in 

 most cases a special privilege, some of these dating back as far as the 

 time of Charlemagne. In granting such favors, a distinction is made 

 between "large" and "small* privileges, differing according to the 

 fishing-implements used. Thus, we read, in a document dated 813, 



