862 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



a stubborn, and a funninjz' lord of tlic waters- — be 

 more tickled wiicn a liuuc Salmon has gorged the fly 

 oil his line, and been Ijrought ashore after desperate 

 struggles to escape. In delicacy of flavour too, the 

 River Trout is preferred to the Salmon; but its smaller 

 size renders it of less economical importance. 



The annual value of tlie Swedish Salmon fisheries 

 may be estimated at a minimum of between 600,000 

 and 700,000 crowns (t'(;(;,000— 77,000)°. In Norway 

 the corresponding figures are half as great, or even 

 more*. Young'" estimated the value of the Salmon 

 fisheries for 1877 in England at £100,000, in Ireland 

 at f400.000, and in Scotland at i:250,000. On the 

 Lower Rhine, including the whole of its course in 

 Holland, the average annual take for 1878 — 79 was 

 44,302 fish'' of an average weight of 8'28 kilo.; and 

 the average weight per annum of the whole catch was 

 tiius 364,320 kilo., each kilogramme of Salmon fetching 

 in the Rhine countries, according to Bkehm', between 

 3 and 9 reichsmarks. The value of the Salmon is in- 

 fluenced, however, in an essential degree bv tlie depth 

 of red colour shown bj' the flesh, a tint ^\■hich seems 

 most, though not entirely, to depend on the proportion 

 in the Salmon's diet of crustaceans. The flesh is also 

 paler as a rule in the Sea Trout than in the true 

 Salmon. The spent fish (Kelts) are of but very little 

 alimentary value, and should never appear in the mar- 

 ket, from which Salmon in the spawning-dress should 

 also be excluded. By the legislation of most coun- 

 tries all Salmon fishing during the Spawning-season 

 is, as a rule, forbidden. The fry and the Parrs too 

 must be protected bj' law if the fisheries are to retain 

 their value. 



The great importance everj^where possessed by 

 the Salmon fishery has induced efforts not only to 

 preserve, but also to extend its bounds, and a special 

 means to this end has been discovered in Salmon cul- 

 ture. Hardlj' any other European fish — the Carp 

 perhaps excepted — has lent itself more readily to cul- 

 tivation; and the Salmon was also the first European 



fisli to attract the attention of pisciculturists. In the 

 fifteenth (•cntu!'\- a monk, Doji Pinciion bv name, is 

 said to have successfully hatched ova in a trough filled 

 witii running ^\■ater; but not until long afterwards were 

 more elaborate experiments instituted. In 1763'^ S. 

 L. Jacobi, a Westphalian farmer from HohenhaUsen-, 

 published in a letter to the editor of the Hannover. 

 Magaz. (No. 23) his observations on the artificial 

 breeding of Salmon. The English Government found 

 the question so important that they rewarded Jacobi 

 with a pension. About 18.50 the French Government 

 established at Iliiningen in Alsace, not far from Basel 

 and near the Rhine and Rhone Canal, an extensive 

 hatchery, which in 1871 passed into the hands of the 

 Germans. During the present century many i)ersons 

 have gained a reputation by efforts in this direction. 

 First we may mention the Englishmen Shaw, Buck- 

 land, and Sir James Maitland, and the German Max 

 VON DEM Bokne; but all Europeans were eclipsed by 

 the American Spencer Bah!!) [d. 18S7), who prevailed 

 upon the Government and Congress of the United States 

 to make grants at that time unprecedented, for the 

 advancement of pisciculture. Doubts have indeed been 

 raised, \vhether the results, especially as regards Sal- 

 mon breeding, have really repaid this lavishing of 

 money and exertion. But America, with jiractical dis- 

 cernment, has not been disheartened by these more 

 or less well-meant warnings from foreign quarters'. 

 Salmon culture has also gained an undeniable victory 

 in the above-mentioned introduction of the genus Salmo 

 into Australia and New Zealand. 



The cause of the success won l)y Salmon culture 

 and of its importance, is to be found simply in two cir- 

 cumstances. First the mass of ova can be more com- 

 pletely impregnated than in nature, the discovery having 

 been made that the fecundation can Ije accomplished 

 by the so-called dry method, by pouring the undiluted 

 milt on the eggs in a dry vessel, in which manner its 

 fertilising properties are not dispersed or weakened 

 by water previous to the impregnation. Second it is 



" Underdanigt Betankamle vied For.ilaij till Nij Fiskeristadya, Stockholm 1883, p. 148. 



' Average annual value 1877 — 81 380,000 kr. (£42,460), according to Norges officiella statistik, Xy Ra>kke. Udgiv. 1884, C. No. 9. 

 ' See D. MiLNE Home, Salmon mid Salmon-Fisheries, Gt. Intern. Fish. Exhib. London 1883, p. 55. 



'' According to Miescher-Ruesch, Statislische imd biologische Beitrdge ztir Keniniss vom Lel/en des Rheinlaches im Siisswasser, Intern. 

 Fischer. Ausst. Berlin 1880, Cat. Schwciz, p. 157. 

 ' Thierleben, 1. c, p. 200. 



■'' Four years before the publication of Alderman Lund's method of cultivating fishes that spawn in spring (Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1707). 

 " See Nordisk Aarskrift for Fiskeri 1883, p. 324, and Brown-Goode and Wilmot in U. Milne Home, 1. c, p. 27. 



