494 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



species ; bat this will soon be rectilied again, and man alone, with the 

 powerfal means at his disposal, has the power to destroy this order for 

 ever and to his own great detriment. 



Bathuman inflnence itself varies considerably according to local condi- 

 tions. In the oceans and large seas man cannot injure the spawning- 

 places of those fish which deposit their spawn in the sea itself or at a 

 great depth, as for instance, thecod,norcanheprevent the fish from reach- 

 ing these places. He can neither destroy the spawn nor, as a general rule, 

 catch those young fish which have not yet attained the age of maturity. 

 These young fish escape and spread over the immense extent of the sea. 



In rivers, lakes, and other limited sheets of water, the fish are brought 

 within the reach of man's influence under very different conditions ; here 

 we find that the basis of a good system of pisciculture mentioned above 

 is wanting either entirely or in part. 



This fact is also established in Russia, not only with regard to the 

 lakes, but also to the inland seas, such as the Caspian Sea and the Sea 

 of Azov^ The abundance of fish in these seas is truly astonishing, and 

 surpasses everything which is kuown of the most celebrated fisheries of 

 the ocean, such as the Newfoundland Bank,* the Dogger Bank, or the 

 Westfiord in Norway. But this large number of fish depends to a great 

 extent on man's action. In the Sea of Azov, the iiriucipal and 

 almost only source of, what is there called the " white fish," {Lucioperca 

 Sandra, Cuv., Leuciscus SecTcelii, Nordm., and Ci/prinus carpio, L.,) is the 

 delta of the Kauban, which combines all the most favorable conditions 

 for spawning. 



Throughout its whole extent enormous fisheries are carried on, the 

 young fish are saved, and all the regulations tending to protect the cir- 

 culation of fish in the net- work of lagoons, in the branches of the delta, 

 and the bed of the river are carefully observed. If, however, this sys. 

 tem of pisciculture at the mouths of the Kauban was not modified, it 

 might have a bad influence, not only on the river-fisheries, but also on 

 those of the Sea of Azov, on account of the transformation of the vast 

 lagoons, where millions of fish spawn, into salty marshes. In the Volga 

 and in the other rivers which fall into the Caspian Sea, the distribution 

 of the water in the delta is not hindered in any way. The fishing of 

 young fish by means of nets with narrow meshes is not in vogue ; but, 

 on the contrary, it is not very long since the whole space extending before 

 the mouths of the Volga was encumbered by inuumerable lines of fish- 

 ing-apparatus, and the free circulation of the fish which had entered the 

 river was hindered by the constant use of draw-nets, and by the river 

 being filled with hooks, nets, leaps, and crawls. Consequently an insufli- 

 cient number of fish was allowed to pass on to the spawning-places. 

 The law of 18G5, with its new regulations, has abolished this abuse. In 

 the inland lakes of Russia, which cover a vast area in the northwest, 



*The uuaibor of tish caught at Newfouudlaud is scarcely half that of the Caspian 

 Sea. 



