818 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



giueer aud economist. He attributes the decrease of fish to the excess 

 of consumption over production. He strongly recommends pisciculture 

 and a proper regulation of the ownership of water-courses, the use of 

 which he would like to see placed in the hands of associations whose 

 interest and perseverance would finally succeed in discovering the vari- 

 ous causes by which the water becomes impure. He thinks that, forced 

 by sheer necessity, people would endeavor to utilize as manure, or in 

 some other way, the hurtful substances, which at present they find 

 convenient to throw into the river. He cites the example of the city of 

 Eeims, where the soap water which has served for cleaning wool is used 

 in the manufacture of gas^. 



In the same year (18GG) I was a member of a commission appointed 

 by the Government for studying on our coasts various questions relat- 

 ing to the sea-fisheries. This commission expressed the wish that a sim- 

 ilar inquiry might be made relative to the fresh-water fisheries. In De- 

 cember, 18C6, I read, at the meeting of the division of science of the 

 Royal Academy of Belgium, an essay On the River Fislieries in Belgium, 

 which was published, accompanied by notes and documents.^ It would 

 be useless to give an analysis of it in this place, for it would only be a 

 repetition of a statement of facts, which are but too well known to the 

 public, relative to the causes of the depopulation of our rivers and the 

 means to lessen their evil effect. The portion of the evil which must be 

 attributed to the jioUution of the water has grown considerably since 

 that time. 



The draft of a fishery law which, as I announced in a postscript, had 

 been prepared by the Government, had to wait for fourteen long years 

 before it was discussed and voted on hy the Chamber of Eepresenta- 

 tives. 



In 1879 M. Emile Gens, doctor of natural sciences and professor at 

 the College of Verviers, published a very interesting little brochure on 

 the protection of fresh-water fish in Belgium {De la protection dupois- 

 son (Veau douce en Belgique). The author, after having sketched in brief 

 outline the deplorable condition of our river-fisheries, proposes the fol- 

 lowing measures for remedying the evil : (1) Prohibition of fishing in 

 all rivers and canals during the months of April and May ; (-) prohibi- 

 tion of fishing from September 15 to January 1 in all water-courses on 

 the right bank of the Meuse (it is here that the salmonoitle live), per- 

 mitting, however, the fishing of salmon after November 15, the spawning 

 having then taken place; (3) severe fines for employing dynamite and 

 Coeculus indicus ; a systematized supervision of the rivers. (4) prohibi- 

 tion of the sale of Coeculus indicus in drug-stores ; (5) prohibition of 

 all night fishing; (6) i)rohibition of fishing in streams hy means of 



^The memoir of M. Lehardy de Beaulieu, preceded by the report of M. Lacordaire, 

 was publislied in 1866, in vol. iii (new series) of the M6moires de la Soci4t4 libre W Emula- 

 tion de Liege. 



* BuUetins de V Academic royale de Belgique, 2d scries, vol. xxil, 1866. 



