494 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



species ; but this will soou be rectified agaiu, and mau aloue, with the 

 1)0 werf 111 means at his disposal, has the power to destroy this order for 

 ever and to his own great detriment. 



Buthumauinfluenceitself varies considerably according to local condi- 

 tions. In the oceans and large seas man cannot injure the spawning- 

 places of those fish which deposit their spawn in the sea itself or at a 

 great depth, as for instance, thecod,norcau he prevent the fish fromreach- 

 iug these places. He can neither destroy the spawn nor, as a general rule, 

 catch those young fish which have not yet attained the age of maturity. 

 These young fish escape and spread over the immense extent of the sea. 



In rivers, lakes, and other limited sheets of water, the fish are brought 

 within the reach of man's influence under very different conditions ; here 

 we find that the basis of a good system of pisciculture mentioned above 

 is wanting either entirely or in part. 



This fact is also established in Kussia, not only with regard to the 

 lakes, but also to the inland seas, such as the Caspian Sea and the Sea 

 of Azov. The abundance offish in these seas is truly astonishing, and 

 surpasses everything which is known of the most celebrated fisheries of 

 the ocean, such as the Newfoundland Bank,* the Dogger Bank, or the 

 Westflord in Norway. But this large number of fish depends to a great 

 extent on man's action. In the Sea of Azov, the principal and 

 almost only source of, what is there called the " white fish," {Lucloperca 

 Sandra, Cuv., Lcuelscus Heclielii, Nordm., and Ci/prinus carina, L.,) is the 

 delta of the Kaubau, which combines all the most favorable conditions 

 for spawning. 



Throughout its whole extent enormous fisheries are carried on, the 

 young fish are saved, and all the regulations tending to protect the cir- 

 culation of fish in the net- work of lagoons, in the branches of the delta, 

 and the bed of the river are carefully observed. If, however, this sys. 

 tefli of pisciculture at the mouths of the Kaubau was not modified, it 

 might have a bad influence, not only on the river-fisheries, but also on 

 those of the Sea of Azov, on account of the transformation of the vast 

 lagoons, where millions of fish spawn, into salty marshes. In the Volga 

 and in the other rivers which fall into the Caspian Sea, the distribution 

 of the water in the delta is not hindered in any w^ay. The fishing of 

 young fish by means of nets with narrow meshes is not in vogue ; but, 

 on the contrary, it is not very long since the whole space extendingbefore 

 the mouths of the Volga was encumbered by innumerable lines of fish- 

 ing-apparatus, and the free circulation of the fish which had entered the 

 river was hindered by tlfe constant use of draw-nets, and by the river 

 being filled with hooks, nets, leaps, and crawls. Consequently an insuffi- 

 cient number of fish was allowed to pass on to the spawning-places. 

 The law of 1865, with its new regulations, has abolished this abuse. In 

 the inland lakes of Eussia, which cover a vast area in the northw^est, 



*The number of tish cau^^ht at XewfouuiUaiul is scarcely half that of the Caspiau 

 Sea. 



