658 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



about $56. The village of Fort Opus has, through a grant from the 

 former republic of Venice, the right to catch eels in the lake of Dragace, 

 and in the river Jassenica-Struga. The income from these fisheries 

 scarcely amounts to $100 per annum. 



In Tyrol, there were fishing-laws enacted in 1575, 1753, and 3 7G8; 

 sections XVI to XXI of the 4th book of the common law of Tyrol, of 

 1573, also treat of the fisheries. In many parts of Tyrol, fishing is free; 

 and in the remaining rivers, streams, and lakes, the fisheries belong to 

 private individuals, village-communities, and landed proprietors, but 

 especially to the state. The right to fish has frequently been acquired 

 by purchase-deeds and other documents, and is in some cases subjected 

 to taxation. 



In the district of Bozen, there are several important fishing-grounds, 

 which are considered as belonging to no one in particular, and where, 

 consequently, anybody may fish. 



Tyrol has several lakes, rivers, and numerous clear, mountain streams, 

 which formerly were full of fish, and which in every respect are well 

 suited for spawning places, places of safety, and waters where the finer 

 kinds might be successfully raised. 



According to a report of the fish-master, Wolfgang Hochleituer, of 

 the year 1504, whole wagon-loads of fish came annually to Innsbruck 

 from the Achen Lake alone. 



Even to this day, the finer kind of fish are represented, some of them 

 in Northern Tyrol, in the territory of the Danube, some of them in 

 Southern Tyrol, in the territory of the Etsch, some again in the lakes, 

 and some throughout the whole province ; but their number has de- 

 creased very much, through reckless plundering, carelessness, and com- 

 plete want of protection, so that in the markets, especially those of 

 Southern Tyrol, only foreign fish are offered for sale. 



In Vorarlberg, a full report on fishing-privileges has been made at the 

 suggestion of Mr. Joseph Tiefenthaler. 



Small as is this province, it, nevertheless, possesses the greatest 

 variety of fishing-privileges. There are waters in which the state pos- 

 sesses the royal prerogative, and which are rented to private individuals, 

 waters belonging to domains, waters which belong to the villages on 

 whose territory they are found, and waters in which only those living 

 near the shore have the right to fish. Some waters are partly in the 

 possession of private persons, possessing their rights to fish through 

 deeds of purchase; while other portions of the same waters are entirely 

 free, fishing in them being carried on only by peasant boys ; and of some 

 waters it could not, even after the most thorough investigation, be 

 ascertained to whom they belong. 



Of the state fishing-privilege in the Ehine, small portions were sold 

 to private individuals in 1858, so that only the following sections are left 

 to it : from the mouth of the river 111 to the Lichtenstein boundary, 

 about 0,000 feet on the Austrian side of the river ; the 111 from Feldkirch 



