VALINE OF NORWEGIAInT LAKES FOR FISH CULTURE. 5G1 



catch salmon, a privilege which usually commands a high price. Inland 

 residents have probably a legitimate claim* that thej' should not be cut 

 off from permission -u-hich probably might be granted them to enjoy a 

 portion of the blessing which the sea can give in the form of the best 

 fish which And their way from it up through the streams as far as they 

 are able to advance, and this so much the more since the lower residents 

 under all circumstances will skim the stream and have absolutely the 

 greatest profit from the abundance of salmon which the increased hatch- 

 ing must produce. There is also amj)le reason for building salmon-lad- 

 ders wherever it will be practicable to i)lace them, even if regard for 

 the promotion of natural culture can or ought to have no weight. Should 

 it fortunately happen that natural culture in some peculiarly fiivorable 

 place produce a yield worthy of mention, so much the better, provided 

 only that the dependence upon such a yield do not cripj)le the work of 

 artificial hatching — the onl}^ mode that is perfectly certain — and the 

 work of caring for the young in their tender 3-outh. 



In parenthesis I shall here say a few words about the attempt to hatch 

 salmon in lakes, with a view to keeping them there. This is, in my esti- 

 mation, a complete misconception of the problem. In the first place, one 

 cannot, according to my belief, destroy the wandering instinct of the true 

 salmon {Salmo salar) by placing it in a lake. It will certainly find its way 

 out of this into the sea just as surely as out of a river ; the one is just as 

 easy as the other, and one cannot destroy instinct. Only by keeping them 

 confined in a basin from which they cannot possibly escape can this in- 

 stinct i)robably be controlled, and this is attended with a danger of their 

 leaping out on land and perishing. In the next place, the nourishing 

 capacity of every lake, even the largest, is limited in comjiarison with 

 that of the sea. To confine sea salmon — wandering salmon — there, even 

 if it were practicable, would also be to subject them to comparative star- 

 vation instead of plenty. As regards the Yenern salmon, which persons 

 have attempted to introduce into our country, it is, in practical and eco- 

 nomical respects, precisely the same as our female trout. The fact that 

 some have been pleased to call it a salmon does not by any means make 

 it a sea salmon, or a true salmon in any respect. So far as flavor and 

 weight are concerned it differs in nothing from the female trout in 

 Mjosen, and the corresponding large trout in our other larger lakes, and 

 it is therefore in my opinion both unnecessary and unprofitable work to 

 introduce it into our waters. 



Salmon are born in the river, live there a short time in their tender 

 youth, and then seek the sea, where they gTow with astonishing rapidity. 



* Already the Norwegian parliament has recognized the legality of such a claim as 

 fnlly as it could be done at the time, as it prohibits the barring the way of the fish 

 from the beach to the river source. This law, however, in a space of time was for- 

 gotten, and industry has been allowed without complaint here and there to block the 

 way of tlie salmon where it was open before. That this happened without complaint 

 was probably only because the abundance of fish was already diminished to such an 

 extent that this barring of their way made no difference. 



36 P 



