THE FISHERY INTERESTS OF AUSTRIA. 669 



privileges been made out. The above remarks on this subject, suggested 

 by the material at my command, will suffice for the present ; any further 

 discussion being at this time neither desirable nor possible. 



25. — INTERNATIONAL FISHERY-TREATIES. 



Many of the finer kinds of Austrian fish are migratory species, some 

 of which live part of the time in the sea. The salmon come from the 

 sea into the Bohemian, Moravian, Silesian, and Galician rivers and 

 their tributaries, spawn there, and then return. In the Rhine, the 

 salmon only go as far as the falls near Schaffhausen. The eels, on the 

 other hand, usually spawn in the sea ; the young ones ascend into the 

 fresh water, and live there till they are able to propagate their species, 

 when they return to the sea. 



Other fish remain in fresh water, lakes, rivers, and brooks, but change 

 their location according to their size, the character and depth of the 

 water, temperature, the quantity and quality of food found, and the 

 more or less favorable location of the spawning places. What has been 

 said of salt-water fish applies likewise to several lake species, and to 

 some living in large rivers, which, during the spawning season, ascend 

 the tributaries and brooks. 



These migrations cause a community of interests in all the countries 

 of one connected water-system, chiefly with regard to the cultivation 

 of the fish and the protection of the fisheries. 



If, for example, the free passage of the salmon and eel from the Lower 

 Elbe is prevented by the fishermen of that region, if they are there 

 caught at the wrong season, or in too great numbers, all the fisheries on 

 the Upper Elbe will suffer from this, and all the efforts to improve those 

 of Bohemia will prove futile. 



In the Netherlands, especially in the mouths of the Bhine, the salmon- 

 fisheries are at present carried on in such a destructive manner, with 

 immense seines, that only in very exceptional cases, high water, &c, 

 the fish escape and ascend to the spawning places; for during the sea- 

 son when the salmon ascend the rivers, these seines are hauled uninter- 

 ruptedly, even on Sundays; they take up the whole stream, and a few of 

 them, worked at short distances from each other, are sufficient to catch 

 every salmon entering the river. 



The lower fishers, however, are likewise entirely dependent on those 

 higher up ; for, if the latter disturb the salmon while they are spawning, 

 and catch and destroy the young fish, none go to the sea, and conse- 

 quently none return from there. 



In large connected fishing territories, divided between several coun- 

 tries, each one is dependent on the others for its fisheries. Every 

 country by itself can do much to destroy the fisheries of the whole ter- 

 ritory ; but, without the co-operation of the other countries, it is not able 

 to keep them up, even with the best and strictest fishing-laws. 



