648 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



to those rivers, and are frequently prevented from leaving and entering 

 by the fishermen of the Danube, it is decreed that henceforth neither the 

 Danube fishers nor any other fishermen shall close the streams flowing 

 into that river 'with stationary nets or any other contrivances. 



Fishermen shall be allowed to catch injurious birds in traps all the year- 

 round, but shall not injure swans and herons. Koyal and other fishermen 

 shall not catch, confine, or sell any fish of the genus Thymallus, any pike, 

 carp, or Salmo hucho, in private, free, and other waters, unless their length 

 from head to tail is exactly the same as that given on the model board 

 as represented at the end of the fishing-law. If smaller fish get into the 

 nets, which cannot always be prevented, they are immediately to be 

 thrown back into the water. In order to carry out this provision of the 

 law, the authorities, the fish-masters, the market-overseers, shall ex- 

 amine the fish as well in the open markets as in the fishing-huts, fish- 

 tanks, and fish-boxes, and shall punish any persons violating this law. 



During one month after St. Simon's Day, (18th February,) no fish ex- 

 cept salmon shall be confined, caught, or sold, and no fish of the genus 

 Thymallus for two weeks before and two weeks after St. George's Day, 

 (13th April.) The seasons of protection for other fish, as given in older 

 laws, shall be abolished, because there are a number of objections to 

 such an arrangement, and because it can never do full justice to all the 

 different kinds of fish. 



The reckless fishing for the Thymallus vulgaris, by which the Traun, 

 one of our finest waters, has almost been depopulated, is for the time 

 being entirely forbidden, till the number of this fish has again increased 

 in that river. An exception is made for the imperial table only, which 

 may be provided with young fish caught before St. Catharine's Day, 

 (30th April.) 



During the seasons when fishing is prohibited, the authorities, lords 

 of the manor, &c, cauuot demand the professional services of the fish- 

 ermen. 



In the other forest streams not mentioned in the law, the lords of the 

 manor, and those of their subjects who own fisheries or fishing priv- 

 ileges, shall see that the laws are observed; and wherever several per- 

 sons own a fishing ground in common, they may make an agreement 

 among themselves not to catch fish out of seasou, nor to catch any 

 which have not the prescribed length, nor to sell or send to market any 

 such fish. 



The fishing-law was considerably modified to suit the prejudices of 

 the times, which is shown by the introduction of certificates of sale, 

 and by the close supervision exercised over the sellers of fish, " in order 

 that fish may be sold cheap." From this reason, the arbitrary market- 

 laws of the period regulated the sale of fish. Salmon shall, at the market 

 in Linz, be sold at 14 pfennige (value at the time a little more than 4 

 cents) apiece, and at 12 kreuzer (somewhat more than 14 cents) the 



