544 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



universally regretted ; but the primitive consolation, that the Lord will 

 constantly take care of the continuance of the abundance of fish, and 

 that this gift was inexhaustible, was so rooted in their apprehension 

 that men ascribed the diminution of the fish to the most marvelous causes 

 instead of the real one.* Precisely the same thing occurred with the 

 most valuable of all our fishes, the salmon, which, however, is indige- 

 nous in only a small part of the course of our great rivers. In the be- 

 ginning of the century down to the end of its first twenty years, this 

 abundance was so great that in many places the servants stipulated 

 that they should eat salmon only three days in a week. But this abun- 

 dance, by the same mode of procedure as was employed for the fresh- 

 water fishes, and owing to other causes arising with the gradually de- 

 veloped industry, diminished to such a degree that the capture of a 

 single salmon had become in many places in Southeastern ISTorway a 

 rare occurrence, and it fell off to such an extent in many loc^/lities that 

 the merchants did not think it worth while to keep the implements of 

 capture, whereas formerly, when the price of the fish was only ^ to 4- of 

 what it had in the mean time advanced to, good and even rich fisheries 

 were a yearly experience. 



Such was the state of things in this country, as well as in many other 

 parts of Europe, when in this portion of the world it finally dawned 

 afresh upon the consciousness that man's care, by bringing nature's 

 powers into activity in an intelligent manner, might win from the waters 

 a considerable production of fish, a production which, when the business 

 is prosecuted with the requisite energy and care, might become very 

 considerably greater than one could have any conception of from pre- 

 vious experience. Influenced by his own observation, it occurred to a 

 farmer in the year 1842, in the Yosges, in France, to attempt to hatch 

 out young trout in order to restore them to a depleted river, t The 



* I have twice in Aiil, in Hallingdal, received the explanation that the sea-worm 

 was the cause of tlie scarcity. The first time, in 1840, Vatsfjord was the scene of its 

 ravages, and it is said that they had procured castor, with which the water was sprink- 

 led around to poison or drive off the worm, but without avail ; the fish were absent 

 and remained away. I have since had a good opportunity to see who does the work 

 attributed to the sea-worm. Near sunset every evening the people assembled from 

 every house in the neighborhood, and swept the water with fine-meshed nets, and 

 they caught therefore only very few fish in the water, whereas the same little flow- 

 ing river was rich in trout weighing three-eighths of a pound to one-half pound. The 

 last time, in 1872, I heard that Buvandet, below Rensljeld, had been the scene. A 

 clergyman, one of his assistants, and a couple of farmers, owners of the water, had in 

 partnership sprinkled castor to drive off the sea-worm, naturally with the same success 

 as before. 



tit is singular how seldom]^ it happens that men avail themselves of accidental 

 experience. The indication of artificial fish culture is not of rare occurrence here, 

 since in many places the same experience is had as in the following case : In 1841, a 

 perfectly trustworthy man told me that he, some years before, had been fishing and 

 hunting late in the autumn at Gjendinsoset. Impending storms drove the fishermen 

 in the greatest haste away to their country district, .5 to miles distant ; the nets were 

 pulled up in the greatest haste, and tke boat placed in the boat-house, while they 



