662 REPOET OF ' COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Even in former times, numerous great and small fishing-privileges in 

 rivers and brooks had been hereditary in certain Bohemian 'families; 

 and the salmon and eel fisheries in the Elbe are carried on by nearly all 

 millers on a large scale at their weirs with an apparatus called Slup. 



The small fishing-privileges connected with mills and other water- 

 works, especially the right to set so-called automatic traps, are in all 

 countries considered as hostile to our modern civilization and as great 

 obstacles in the way of rational fish-culture. A Bohemian inspector, 

 Director Horak, of Wittingau, calls the salmon and eel traps of the 

 millers on the Elbe and Moldau infernal machines, and remarks that, 

 like the shark, they devour all fish, both young and old. In interna- 

 tional treaties, the contracting parties usually agree to abolish such 

 privileges as far as possible. 



Among the Bohemian fishing-laws, we mention as important an article 

 from the Bohemian river-police-regulations of February 10, 1854, which 

 says that a permit from the authorities is required for setting salmon- 

 traps in navigable rivers, and likewise decrees that the placing of bow- 

 nets, catch-poles, &c, must not in any way interfere with navigation. 



In Moravia, the state of affairs up to 1849 was very similar to that of 

 Bohemia. According to the report, there were many waters in which 

 fishing with hook and line had never been prohibited; and the free 

 catching of crawfish in many running waters has been practiced for 

 centuries. 



The practices allowed by the law of 1859, which we shall give more 

 in detail, have, with regard to those fishing-privileges which hitherto 

 belonged to the landed proprietors, produced a state of disorder and 

 uncertainty, which has contributed not a little to the neglect of the 

 fisheries, so that reforms are urgently demanded. 



In Silesia, the government, at the request of the assembly in 1866, 

 had reports made on the fishing-privileges by the district officers, to be 

 made use of in the preparation of a new law, by which they should be 

 regulated. 



Here, likewise, the titles to possession vary very much, and their 

 validity has frequently been questioned. The bishop of Breslau had, from 

 times immemorial, the fishing-privilege of numerous waters, but had 

 likewise many obligations toward the communities, especially with 

 regard to keeping the beds of rivers in order, protecting the banks, fur- 

 nishing the wood for bridges, &c. Since these obligations have ceased, 

 the fishing-privilege of the bishop is, as the agricultural society com- 

 plains, found to be a heavy burden. 



On the actual state of affairs in Silesia, the report of 1869 says : 



" In many waters, everybody is allowed to fish ; in some, the com- 

 munity is considered to possess this right, without its being clear 

 whether it possesses it as a corporation, or whether it merely means 



