548 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



About the same time tlie matter awakened attention among us wliere 

 already in many places the abundance of fish was reduced to a minimum, 

 a reduction which, moreover, has continued for many years with unabated 

 zeal in many places in this country, and even now is continued here and 

 there on no small scale. 



Since the year 1848 the legislature has taken into consideration the 

 destruction of salmon-fishing, and has sought by more stringent pro- 

 visions to control the instinct of prey. Since 1863 the way has likewise 

 been oi)en by it for restraining this mode of procedure in the lakes and 

 rivers, since the necessary increase ought to be gained in all the places 

 interested. For about the same length of time, by the contribution of 

 public funds, artificial hatching has been carried on over the whole 

 country, and public attention has been directed to the matter, while 

 instruction in the art has been given wherever it has been sought. 



These measures have borne evident fruit, and the country therefore 

 owes great gratitude to Prof. H. Easch, who chiefly gave it the impulse, 

 as well as to his indefatigable assistants in its practical execution. But 

 the result has not yet by far reached the extent which it can and ought 

 to reach, and which it probably will reach when the matter is taken 

 hold of with the energy and care which it deserves. That it is not at 

 present greater cannot depreciate the man's services, which hitherto 

 have borne the matter forward; one must much rather wonder that he 

 has succeeded in winning so great victories over deeply rooted prejudices, 

 and the universal reluctance among people to submit to previously 

 unknown restrictions against habitual unrestrained free fishing, the use 

 of which they must first see before they can, i^erhaps rather will, com- 

 prehend them. 



But the experience gained through more than twenty years' practice 

 in many countries in America, ds well as in Europe, has shown that we 

 now stand very far from the goal which we can and, therefore, ought to 

 seek to reach. We have hitherto in this country confined our operations 

 to placing little barriers against improper rapacity ; these barriers ought 

 to be given the necessarj'^ dimensions which are required for the attain* 

 meut of the object in the well-understood interests of all. Having, besides, 

 to some extent provided for the sowing of the field, they will win there- 

 from increased production -, but this care has not been sufiiciently great 

 by far, partly because it is limited to the salmon by ill-advised provisions 

 of law, which render difficult, often impossible, that which has the claim 

 of the first requisite, the desired abundance of mature spawn -, partly 

 because they have placed their trust in, and, therefore, to an unreason- 

 able degree given their attention to the advancement of, natural culture. 

 Moreover, they considered only the production of the delicate young, 

 and have liberated these, whicli cannot be regarded as in much better 

 condition to escape the multitudes of enemies than the spawned eggs, 

 in the rivers, to be eaten up in masses before they reach any size. 

 Finally, they have, for the lake fisheries concerned, not at all considered 



