10 
4) I come now the questition, wheteher the oyster banks of the Lim 
Fjord as a consequence of their situation are so shut off that the authorities 
concerned, as has been stated, are unable to protect them from unlawful 
fishing. I feel obliged to contradict this statement absolutely, and to 
maintain the opposite, that if a bank is plundered the fault lies not at all with 
the situation but in the indifference of the police, and as sufficient proof 
of this I may point out that the banks round Lemvig have been almost perfectly 
protected against attacks, although their situation is the same as the other banks, 
only because the authorities have shown from the beginning that they were serious 
in their endeavours to save the hbanks. The information given by Justitsraad 
Rummelhof in his report to the Government, that 16,000 oysters (or perhaps a 
much larger number, as I have reason to believe) were taken at Harrevig on the 
two days preceding the prohibition, receives its explanation from statements collec- 
ted on the spot, that the severe fishing was a result of most friendly infor- 
mation to the fishermen that the prohibiton was near at hand and that 
they must make the most of their time. The oyster fishermen therefore streamed 
together from all quarters, and as one of the men fishing informed me, there were 
over thirty hoats there beside one another in Harrevig fishing up the oysters from 
the fjord. Another who also took part informed me that he had been fishing 
on the very day of prohibition, but so early, that he was able to land and 
sell his catch before the prohibition was proclaimed. 
The prohibition however by no means prevented the oyster fishery from 
going on, as I have been assured; a small changein direction was the only result. 
The people in Nykjøbing, who had fished there gave up, hut the peasants 
round about Harrevig etc, continued the fishery, and brought their catch in 
sacks for sale to Nykjøbing; as the trade there had however to be carried on 
with a certain amount of care and secrecy, the prices were low, and the sellers 
had often to be content with 2—3 marks per hundred, wh;ch led to speculation 
on a fairly large scale, as the merchants sent by no means small quantities to 
Aalborg and other places. | 
These reports seem to find confirmation in the large number of oysters 
offered for sale and consumed in Copenhagen after the prohibition. I was told 
also in Thisted that oysters could be obtained after the prohibition over Nykjøbing. 
If any attention was paid to the trade, it was a sufficient answer to hluster out 
thatthe oysters had been taken before the prohibition and kept in boxes. 
5) Just as the varying views of the different persons in authority —accor- 
ding to some the Crown has become seriously involved in prescriptive rights, whilst 
in the opinion of others nothing more has been done in this direction than just 
what could not be avoided — have had a harmful influence on the oysters banks, 
as shown in the foregoing, they have also contributed in several ways to raise 
discontent amongst the people round the Lim Fjord who consider themselves more 
particularly interested in the oyster fisheries. Under the prevailing conditions it 
will perhaps scarcely be possible to do away with at least the worst 
existing irregularities in a quicker and better manner, than by at once giving 
over the banks to lessees, a method which seems to find support in the com- 
