468 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AXD FISHERIES. 



of tlie general council, and after having consulted the foresters, the 

 times, seasons, and hours when fishing shall be proliibited in the rivers 

 and water-courses. Now, liow^ many times must the prefects, little 

 skilled in natural science or ill-advised by those whose duty it is to 

 enlighten them, have committed errors lilie those of Colbert, when he 

 interdicted trout-fishing from the first of February to the middle of 

 March, that is to sa;s', at a time when they had nearly all already fin- 

 ished spawning! The same ordinance prohibits certain specified nets 

 and snares, thus intimating that all others are authorized, and permit- 

 ting changes of form and name in the first, without rendering them less 

 formidable or destructive. Article 30 of the fishery-code punishes, with 

 a fine of 20 to 50 francs, whoever shall catch, offer for sale, or sell fishes 

 of less than the prescribed size, but it excepts from this provision sales 

 of fish coming from ponds or reservoirs. It will at once be perceived 

 how easy it is, through this exception, to catch and sell fishes of all 

 sizes. Article 24 forbids the placing of any gate, structure, or fishing- 

 establishment whatever, calculated to prevent entirely the passage of 

 fish, but it tacitly authorizes dikes and mill-dams, which produce the 

 same effect. 



We will carry criticism no farther. It would be as easy for us to 

 show that no efficacious measures insure the action of the fish-police, and 

 that the law is as badly executed as conceived. This state of things is 

 deplorable, and has, without doubt, powerfully contributed to bring on 

 the decaj" which has fallen upon the aquatic industry of France.* 



Some figures, taken from the archives of the ministry of finance, will 

 show clearly the importance of the evil. The water courses of France 

 have a total length of 197,255 kilometers, (122,500 miles.) Its lakes, 

 reservoirs, and fish-ponds occupy a superficies of 220,000 hectares, (900 

 square miles.) Now, the rent of all the waters directed by the commis- 

 sioners of forests, and those of dikes and bridges, yields to the state a 

 revenue of 600,000 francs. The former alone give fishing-privileges in 

 7,570 kilometers (4,750 miles) of navigable and floating water-courses, 

 producing the annual sum of 521,395 francs; that is, an average of 69 

 francs to the kilometer. The insignificance of this sum is very striking 

 when compared with what it ought to be, or even with that still fur- 

 nished by some rivers more favored than others. Thus, the Doubs, in 

 the Jura, is still let out at the rate of 150 francs the kilometer ; the 

 Moselle, in the department of La Meurthe, at the rate of 182 francs. 

 For a similar length, the Loire brings in 252 francs in La Loire Infe- 



*The evil has been further increased by the encroachmeuts of maunfacturing Indus- ^| 

 try, as well as by the processes which they have involved. The mills throw off into 

 the water-courses their acids and salts which have become useless, and the bleachers 

 do the same with their chlorides. The beds of streams have often to be laid dry to ex- 

 ecute dragging and cleansing. Finally, steamboats, by their violent movements of the 

 water, raise and cast up the young lishes upon the river-banks, and these are often 

 detained and perish there. These last causes of destruction are still moi'e fatal to the 

 development. of the fry than the culpable practices of the poachers. 



