BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 175 



cauuot be maiutaiiied that the decline of the salmou fisheries is caused 

 by the apparatus. All the nets are either incomplete or so poorly made 

 that they barely answer the purpose. The stationary nets are, as a rule, 

 too small, and the seines do not float well in the water. The mate- 

 rials (hemj), wool, wood, and bone) do not at all answer the require- 

 ments of modern fishing apparatus. I will only mention, as an illustra- 

 tion, that the bones which are used as sinkers scare away fish that 

 are as shy as the salmon is known to be, by their white color. The 

 salmon traps near Laxamyri and Ellidara do not deserve any special 

 notice. It is a great mistake, however, that salmou are frequently 

 caught in Iceland with hooks by beating the water at hap-hazard, as 

 tliese hooks enter deep into the body of the salmou and entirely spoil 

 Its appearance and value. 



As the salmon fisheries are at present carried on in Iceland, there is 

 no danger that the salmon will be exterminated. But many Icelanders 

 t-annot see a salmon within their reach without killing it. They have 

 IK) idea of leaving the fish in peace during the spawning season ; and 

 although there are laws on the subject, many Icelanders pay little at- 

 tention to such regulations. The apparatus are frequentlj^ left in the 

 water so long that they are in danger of being lost. In spite of the 

 many comi^laiuts of the decline of the salmon fisheries, the Icelanders, 

 who in many other respects have to rely on their own resources, have- 

 no idea that much could be done to improve matters. In olden times, 

 when the salmon were not an article of trade but only an article of food 

 for home consumption, there was some meaning in the regulation that 

 the salmon should be allowed to go into an^- man's waters. At the 

 present time the alternative is, either to let the entire country enjoy an 

 economical advantage by increasing the value of the different waters, 

 or to let each Icelander have a salmon in his own pot. This may be 

 pleasant enough, but a wise economy would prefer to increase the value- 

 of all the waters. 



Some choice has also to be made between the salmon fisheries and 

 the seal fisheries, if the former are to be preserved and developed. 

 Here likewise we are confronted by an old saying which is quite com- 

 mon in Iceland, namely, that everything is good as it has been banded 

 down from olden times. This may have been true enough until the 

 exportation of salmon assumed larger proportions; and it may still ap- 

 ply to the seal fisheries, but certainly not to the salmon fisheries. If 

 the Iceland salmon fisheries are to be preserved and developed, the 

 seals should be hunted at all times and in every possible way. The 

 seals destroy a large quantity of salmon. They eat nearly all fish, but 

 they prefer salmon, for the same reason that we like salmon if we can 

 get it. Seals may, therefore, be observed at the mouths of all salmon 

 rivers, and if they chase them up the rivers, they have certainly i)re- 

 viously <Jecimated them. A simi)le sum will illustrate this, and, to un- 

 derstand it, it should be remembered that it is a natural necessity for 

 the salmon to go up the rivers. Let us suppose that a man every year 



