XXII -THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE NORWEGIAN LAKES AND 

 RIVERS AS A FIELD FOR FISH CULTURE. 



By N. Wergeland.* 

 [Translateil by Tarletou H. Bean.l 



INTRODUCTION. 



At the public meeting of the Imperial Acclimatization .Society, held in 

 Paris February 20, 18G2, M. de Quatrefages, vice secretary of the society, 

 delivered the following address : 



From Hesiod to Virgil and from Virgil to our d;iy the poets have vied 

 with one another in praising tlie boundless muniticence and maternal 

 goodness of the goddess which watches over the harvest. But, without 

 offense to the beautiful spirit, thei^' commendations have been wrongly 

 bestowed. Ceres is but a nurse, and that a severe one. She resembles 

 Hercules, in that she helps only those who first help themselves. Before 

 she makes the furrow fruitful she insists that the laborer shall water it 

 with his sweat as an offering, and does not always i)rotect it from the 

 scorching or freezing breath of bolus's children, nor from Jupiter's 

 thunder-showers. 



There is on ancient Olympus a much less exacting and a very differ- 

 ently liberal goddess. I refer to Tethys, the old ocean's bride and mother 

 of springs and streams ; in other words, the goddess of the water. She 

 proves always a tender mother, gives always without numbering, and 

 without ever requiring a return. Of him who cultivates her domain she 

 demands neither plowing nor harrowing ; she excuses him from all labor 

 save that which is necessary to the harvest. It is perhaps on this ground 

 alone that she has been neglected; because mankind has sometimes a 

 strange heart which is inclined to ingratitude. It easily disregards 

 what is acquired without trouble ; it forgets a benefactor whose always 

 open, hand and heart have anticipated its desires, but holds better in 

 remembrance and higher in esteem one whose benefactions must be ex- 

 torted. This is doubtless the reason why the ancient Grecian priests 

 lavished upon Ceres the exi^ressious of filial gratitude which rightfully 

 belonged to Tethys. 



But one fine morning, as if overtaken with regret, they suffered Venus 

 to be born from the foam of the ocean ; Venus the goddess of love, fruit- 

 fulness made corporeal. This was at once to repair an injustice and to 



* ^leddclelser fra Norsk Jicgiii- — og Fisker — Foreniug, 7'^'^ Aargang, 1 ste Hefte, 

 Kiistiania, 1878, pp. 1-47 ; 2 de Hefte, pp. 101-179. 



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