VALUE OF NOEWEGIAN LAKES FOR FISH CULTURE. 557 



is precisely similar. Professor Easch states in his book on " Tlie means 

 of improving the salmon and fresh- water fisheries of Norway, 1857," 

 that the Duke of Athole has related the following : 



"By consulting my journal I find that I caught this fish marked as a 

 spawner (kelt) on the 31st March, with a rod, two miles above Dunkeld- 

 Broen, and it then weighed exactly ten pounds. Five weeks and two 

 days later I caught it again, and it had, in the short time specified, 

 gained the almost incredible increase of 11^ pounds, for on its return 

 it weighed 21J poiuids. The salmon here mentioned was caught and 

 marked nearly 40 English (6 Norwegian) miles from the sea. It had 

 thus in this time wandered this way back and forth, and still had time 

 to obtain the quantity of food which it consumed to produce such an 

 increase of weight. There can be no doubt of the trustworthiness of 

 this fact, because his grace was extremely precise with regard to his 

 marking experiment, and carried for this purpose with him small zinc 

 tags numbered and furnished with the means of fastening them. Thus 

 we find this fish marked number 129, and the date entered in his grace's 

 journal." 



This observation refers of course to the salmon and not to the trout, 

 but there can be no doubt that the last species of fish is subject to the 

 same laws as the first, even if not to the same degree. 



Hitherto there has at the same time obtruded itself an imj)ortant 

 hinderance in the way of extensive catching of late fishes in summer, 

 namely the difQculty of preserving them in the best condition for any 

 length of time. To transport them fresh has been possible only for 

 short distances ; to salt them so that they will be preserved has also its 

 difficulties ; in every case the lake fish loses thereby a good portion of 

 its value as a salable article. These circumstances have certainly had 

 varying influence in restricting the fishery to the spawning time, since 

 the frost has already to some extent made its appearance, although the 

 greater ease then of capturing the fish at the spawning i>laces has of 

 course been the essential motive of the common people for deferring the 

 fishing chiefly to this time. 



If the means cannot be found for preser\ang fish unspoiled in the 

 fi'esh state for a long time, the profit of systematically prosecuted fish 

 culture will be diminished in no small degree in all places some distance 

 away from the chief means of transit and the trade centers, and the 

 most and best of our fishing streams are thus situated. This is, how- 

 ever, fortunately the state of things ; it is in our power to preserve fish 

 perfectly fresh for a long time by a very simi^le means which is every- 

 where in this country at hand in more than the necessary quantity, 

 namely, ice. The plan which has hitherto been employed in shipping 

 fresh fish over to England, packing in boxes with loose pieces of ice and 

 sawdust, permits, according to the statement of Americans, the trans- 

 portation of fish fresh and unspoiled on the railroads to a distance of 

 800 kilometers, about 490 miles — that is to say, preserves them during 



