554 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. [30] 



observe such places, and in the rare cases when they know of them they 

 will hardly fish there. I am inclined to think that a considerable num- 

 ber of herring eggs are devoured by other fish and marine animals, be- 

 cause I have found great masses of freshly laid eggs sticking to aquatic 

 plants in the Schlei, whilst I found but few and scattered developed 

 eggs. It would certainly be important for the fisherman to observe the 

 destroyers of fish-eggs a little more closely than is done at the present 

 time. 



Imperfect as our knowledge of the spawning process is, we can 

 nevertheless get a general idea of it. This will be, however, of little 

 practical use, for in questions of practice the location of the spawn- 

 ing place, its depth, the nature of its bottom, its vegetation, &c, 

 would have to be considered. It might, however, be possible to favor 

 in this respect certain food-fish, and to increase their number, by pro- 

 tecting the vegetation in the spawning places, by not removing the 

 stones in such localities, or by even adding a few stones, and by setting 

 eel-traps, or by catching the sticklebacks with a fine net a short time 

 before the spawning season. The experiment would have to be made 

 whether such measures, if simultaneously pursued on different parts of 

 the coast, would have a favorable result. All we wish to do is to hint 

 that these questions may probably be of considerable importance to 

 fishermen. But all such experiments presuppose that our knowledge of 

 the localities where the fish spawn is not, as now, confined to a few scat- 

 tered places, but extends to many places. 



No one but the fishermen can aid us in gaining this extensive knowl- 

 edge, and if they were to give the desired aid it would certainly be to 

 their own immediate profit. If it were so easy to find the spawning 

 places they would have long since become generally known, but as the 

 difficulties in the way of finding them are manifold, we take the liberty 

 to give some well-meant advice. 



A good deal depends, in the first place, on keeping books and noting 

 down every observation. It is useless if one or the other fisherman 

 reports that here and there he has seen one or another fish during 

 its spawning process. He may mistake; he may have forgotten the 

 place, or he may have taken one fish for the other, and even at best 

 such things soon escape the memory. If such observations are to be 

 valuable and of practical use, suitable for a basis of scientific investiga- 

 tions and decisions, the first thing to be done is to procure a little note- 

 book, which can be bought for about two cents, and one of the older 

 fishermen, or anyone else suited for it, should undertake to "keep 

 account." On the cover should be written, " Observations on the spawn- 

 ing of fish, commenced in 1880." 



In this book one page should be devoted to every kind of market- 

 able fish. Thus the first page, for instance, should be headed "Plaice," 

 the second " Codfish," the third " Sturgeon," &c. Below the name of 

 the fish a few lines should be drawn and columns arrranged as follows: 



