176 BULLETIN OF TUE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



kills 100 seals, aud that lie gets 10 crowns |$2.GS] for each — a price 

 which, however, he will rarely get in Icelaud. This yields him a net 

 income of 1,000 crowns [$2G8]. I will fnrther suppose that these seals 

 have lived 4 months (120 days) near the mouth of sorue river, and that 

 every day each seal has devoured 5 pounds of salmon. They would, 

 therelbre, have destroyed 00,000 pounds of salmon, to the value of about 

 20,000 crowns f85,3G0J, at a low calculation. It is easy to draw the moral 

 from the above. 



It is not easy to say what income the Icelaud salmon fisheries yield 

 at the present time; or, at least, I am not in possession of the necessary 

 data. It is said that about 500 tons of salt salmon are exported every 

 year. This is certainly not much, but in time this quantity might be 

 increased, and the salmon fisheries would certainly yield better results 

 if the salmon were properly treated. This should be the aim of all 

 progressive fishermen in Iceland. Among other things I would recom- 

 mend packing in ice, slighter salting, and smoking. The question of 

 packing salmon in ice is at present discussed in Iceland, but no definite 

 conclusion has as yet been reached. At present the Icelanders salt 

 their salmon too much, and most fish dealers would prefer salmon 

 which is not salted so much, as salmon salted in this mAuner are not 

 so valuable as an article of trade. Hence, it would be worth while to 

 try a better method of salting. 



One difficulty, however, will always have to be contended within Ice- 

 kind: the fishing places are generally at a considerable distance from 

 each other and from the trading stations. Transportation becomes ex- 

 ])ensive and difficult if the fish (as should always be done) are salted or 

 packed in ice immediately after they are caught. 



The seal fisheries should be free to every one, so that the greatest 

 l^ossible number of seals would be destroyed. As both the trout aud 

 the mountain-trout are dangerous enemies of the eggs and the young 

 of the salmon, they should not be protected. The trout fisheries should 

 therefore be free, except in the spawning places of the salmon, from 

 September till May 1. The people living along the salmon streams 

 would therefore not have to forego the })leasure of eating fresh fish. 



The deep Thingvalla Lake, which contains a great many fish, is a lake 

 where salmon might be introduced with advantage. It is well known 

 that in some inland lakes there is a variety of the salmon which never 

 goes to the sea, and of all the Iceland lakes the Thingvalla Lake is the 

 one particularly adapted to this kind of salmon. For this reason about 

 3,000 nearly -hatched salmon eggs were, during the winter of ISSl-'SS, 

 brought toThingvellir, where they are further developed, and the young 

 that are hatched will be placed in the Oxarii. It is the intention to 

 place several thousand young salmon in the Thingvalla Lake every year, 

 and thus to provide this lake with a good stock of this fish. 



There is but little occasion to make experiments in introducing finer 

 kinds of fish. The few kinds of fish found iu Iceland are all of such 

 excellent quality that it would hardly pay to introduce others. 



