THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. 659 



upward to its source in the Montafone Valley ; and the Dornbirner-Acli 

 to its mouth. 



The Vorarlberg Agricultural Society justly regrets that the senseless 

 subdivision of the fishing- waters into insignificant patches throws almost 

 insurmountable obstacles in the way of successful fish- culture; and these 

 small patches of water have recently been still further subdivided, thus 

 lowering the value of the fisheries still more. 



In Galicia, several reports have during the last years been made 

 regarding the fishing-privileges. These, on the strength of some old 

 Polish and other laws, in some cases have been defined as rights per- 

 taining to domains ; in others, as royal prerogatives, or as rights belong- 

 ing to the inhabitants of the shores or banks. 



By a statute of Casimir the Great, dated 134G, fishing in rivers and 

 streams in the former kingdom of Poland was declared to be the exclu- 

 sive right of the inhabitants of towns or villages located on their banks; 

 such right to belong to them as long as these rivers and streams 

 remain in their original beds. 



From this, as well as from a second statute of Casimir, dated 1457, 

 and from another published by King Sigismund II, dated 1507, we 

 see that even the common laboring people were permitted to fish. 



By the statutes of Casimir Jagello, 1447, and Johann Albert, 1496, 

 the rivers were distinguished as royal and free, in order to diminish 

 abuses; and it was ordered that no weirs or poles should be allowed, 

 but only nets. 



It was claimed in the reports, in favor of the domains, that, in the 

 kingdom of Poland, by its old constitution, all land lying within the 

 jurisdiction of a landed proprietor was his absolute property; and that 

 the lands given to the serfs, who themselves were property, only be- 

 longed to them as long as their master thought proper; and that conse- 

 quently the fisheries on his land were likewise his absolute property. 

 It was maintained that, by the charter which King Stephen Bathory 

 signed at his election in 1576, the entire usufruct from lands had been 

 made over to the owners ; neither tbe king nor his successors having 

 any right to deprive them of it. When Galicia became an Austrian 

 province, the privileges of the landed proprietors were not interfered 

 with. The government ordinance of May 6, 1808, was also thought to 

 be in favor of the landed proprietors, as it says that the Soltyssen (free 

 peasants) did not possess the right to grind corn, to cut wood, to sell 

 beer, wine, and liquor, and to fish, even if these pursuits should be men- 

 tioned in the privileges of the Soltyssen, and they should actually be in 

 the enjoyment of such rights. It was finally claimed that the imperial 

 decree of January 31, 1823, had declared fishing to be among the pre- 

 rogatives of landed proprietors. 



To all these claims it was objected that the statute of Casimir, given 

 in 1346, did not speak of landed proprietors, but of the inhabitants of 

 villages on the banks of rivers and streams; that later statutes declared 



