[7] REPOPULATING BELGIAN WATERS. 821 



mill is at rest, it will be very high ; at other times, when all the water 

 is utilized by the mill, it will be so low as almost to lay the river dry. 

 Under these conditions the reproduction and the very existence offish 

 becomes impossible. If one takes accouut from another point of view, 

 of the enormous harm which is done to rivers by the fact that the water 

 in tliese water-courses is nearly always kept at too high a level, thus 

 makiug the rivers marshy ; if furthermore it is remembered that mills 

 render temporary inundations more dangerous, that great damage is 

 done to agriculture, and finally that public health is endangered, it is 

 to be desired that the water-mills of which I have spoken should as 

 soon as possible, be replaced by wind-mills, or, still better, that they 

 should obtain their motive power from a small steam-engine.^ 



By the provisions of the " Law of the river fisheries," passed by our 

 Chambers towards the end of the year 1881, the supervision and preserva- 

 tion of these fisheries is placed in the hands of the ad m i nistration of forests. 

 The right of fishing in navigable rivers and canals belongs to the Gov- 

 ernment, which farms out the fisheries, thus deriving a profit there- 

 from. Fishing with a line held in the hand, however, is free to all citi- 

 zens. In other watercourses than those mentioned above the people 

 living on the banks possess the right of fishing. The season when fish- 

 ing is allowed and the imjjlements to be used are determined by the 

 Government, which also regulates the sale of fish. Fishing is allowed 

 at all times to proprietors of ponds and reservoirs whose waters have no 

 natural communication with the rivers. Boatmen are prohibited from 

 having on board any fishing apparatus but lines. As regards the throw- 

 ing into the water of hurtful substances, when not done with the object 

 of destroying fish, it is regulated by the " Law on water-courses," pre- 

 viously passed by the Chambers. As, unfortunately, the carrying out 

 of these regulations is in the hands of provincial and communal author- 

 ities, which are elective, much remains to be desired. In my opinion 

 the central Government ought to have charge of this supervision. 



After the law on river fisheries had been passed a member of the di- 

 vision of science of the Royal Academy of Belgium thought that a fav- 

 orable time had come for encouraging scientific researches and practical 

 exijeriments in repopulatiug the i>olluted water-courses. He placed at 

 the disposal of the Academy the sum of 3,00() francs as a prize to be 

 given, in 1884, to the author of an essay which would indicate a satis- 

 factory solution of this problem. 



At the end of this article I shall give the conditions of this competi- 

 tion as they are found in the transactions of the Academy, with the 

 view of directing to it the attention of scientists and practical piscicult- 

 urists who might feel inclined to compete for the prize. 



Although the conditions mention certain local questions which spe- 



* This last-mentioned system has recently been recommended in a petition of the 

 inhabitants of the banks of the Geer, a tributary of the Meuse on its left bank, in 

 which petition they ask the Belgian Government to order the suppression of all water- 

 mills, as a measure of public usefulness. 



