VALUE OF NORWEGIAN LAKES FOR FISH CULTURE. 559 



the same time will signify nothing compared with the profit. The roe 

 ■which one gets to begin with he must procure from other i^laces, and from 

 places w^here good salmon are found ; for there are many, sometimes 

 considerably different varieties of the greatest difference in value. 

 After the lapse of two or three years one will be able to get more at a 

 place that he can manage to hatch — under the condition previously men- 

 tioned as now existing, the absurd opposition against removal — which it 

 cannot be doubted will occur. 



The hatching of salmon-roe is in all respects just as certain as the hatch- 

 ing of trout-eggs ; of w'hich it is not necessary further to speak. Only in 

 one direction is the case of the salmon different from that which applies to 

 lake fish. The salmon goes, one or two years after it has been hatched, 

 out to sea, and the nourishing capacity of this is unbounded.* One does 

 not need, so far as the salmon are concerned, in any way to limit the abun- 

 dance of the eggs which are taken for hatching for fear that the fish will 

 not be able to find food enough for their full and complete development. 



But it is not sufficient, as hitherto, to take care of the young till they 

 can scarcely be regarded as fully hatched ; one must further protect them 

 until they assume the wandering habit, and instinctively seek the sea. 

 The older method in reality results in destroying at least half, perhaps 

 three-fourths, of the young which one has with care hatched out. Of 

 course the care of the young long continued will involve an outlay for 

 suitable ponds and for the food as well as the tending of the fish ; but 

 this outlay will amount to nothing compared with the increased abund- 

 ance of fish which will spring from it. The mode of procedure hereto- 

 fore adopted is perhaps the principal reason why the profit of the work 

 hitherto done is so inconsiderable. 



It applies to salmon, without doubt, in a still higher degree than to the 

 lake fishes that every attempt to assist natural culture, in order to 

 increase the abundance of fish thereby, and escape the labor of hatching, 

 is perfectly idle work. For the salmon it is evidently the largest rivers 

 that have any importance in this direction; for the lake fish it is essen- 

 tially small brooks. But it is just in the largest rivers that the un- 

 favorable conditions peculiar to our climate appear most plentifully and 

 with the most destructive power, along with all unfavorable ch'cum- 

 stances which in more propitious climates bring it to pass that natural 



*Capt. Joliu Ross, who nndertook a voyage of discovery to the 



arctic regions, to find the so-called northwest passage, states, in his report on this 

 expedition, the following: "When spring finally arrived after the first winter, came 

 in sight from the ship a great river, on whose shore Esqnimanx gathered, to fish. 

 They thrust unweariedly the whole day their spears at random down in the turbid 

 river, and at every third cast they usually got a salmon. On the vessel there was a 

 fishing-net made of coarse materials, brought along for such a case ; this was thrown 

 out, but was broken by the weight of the fish. A new net of coarser material was then 

 quickly knit, and with this 5,500 salmon were taken at one haul. All the empty 

 vessels on the ship were salted full, and a large portion, which could not be accommo- 

 dated, were presented to the Esquimaux. This describes plainly enough the un- 

 bomided nourishing capacity of the sea. 



