446 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



sociation, 1881, p. 150), also reports that large mardne have beeu found 

 in the Raygrod Lake (southeast of Lyck), belonging partly to Prussia 

 and partly to Russia, while formerly they did not occur there. After 

 a few such fish had been caught in that lake during the winters of 

 1879-'80, quite a large number were caught in 1880-'81. During the 

 following years large mariine have often been. caught there. It 

 has been impossible, however, to obtain more information on the sub- 

 ject, as the persons who rent the fisheries have an interest in keeping 

 the results secret, the fish being <iuietly shipped to Poland. It is prob- 

 able that these marline came from the neighboring Russian fish-cultural 

 establishment of Suwalki, where the marline of the Ladoga and Peipus 

 Lakes has been cultivated for many years. These facts speak strongly 

 in favor of the success of Russian fish-culture, as no fry of that fish have 

 been planted in this lake on the Prussian side. 



I now come to the region of the Oder River, a review of whose sal- 

 mon culture I gave in Nos. 28 and 29, Vol. VI of Deutsche Fischer ei-Zei- 

 iung, so that here I may confine myself to the following statement : 

 Starting from a small beginning in 18G8-'09, the enterprise gradually as- 

 sumed larger dimensions. Up to 1879 the largest number of salmon-eggs 

 hatched in one year was 305,000 (in the winter of 1871-'72). Since 1871 

 there has been a noticeable increase of salmon off the juouth of the 

 Dievenow, the eastern channel connecting the Great Ilaff with the 

 Baltic Sea, although prior to that year the salmon fisheries of this re- 

 gion had declined so much that many fishermen emigrated to Eastern 

 Pomerania. From 1871 the salmon fisheries off the mouth of the Dieve- 

 now increased IVom year to year till (according to statements furnished 

 by the fishermen) the vspring fisheries alone yielded 45,212 pounds in 

 1875, and 52,293 pounds in 1870. Owing to a combination of different 

 unfavorable circumstances the yield was not so good during the 

 following year. In the early part of the summer of 1880 so many 

 young salmon were caught that many of them could not be sold as food, 

 but had to be used as manure. Since 1877 the salmon also increased 

 considerably off the mouth of the Swine and Peene. Also, in the pres- 

 ent year (1883) a large number of salmon have been caught on the coast 

 of Pomerania {Deutsche Fisherci-Zeitunf/, 1883, j). 293),' which undoubt- 

 edly is owing to the planting of young salmon iiy further uj) the Oder 

 and in some of its tributaries. 



Although the salmon-culture of the Oder region has borne rich fruit 

 in the sea outside the mouth of the Oder, the same cannot be said of 

 the entire valley of the Oder. The salmon seemed princi])ally to go 

 into the rivers Warthe and ;i!setze, where these fish, M'hich had become 

 rare in these rivers, again made their a])pearanceiu large numbers since 

 1874. Thus in 1873 at Landsberg, Driesen, and Steinbusch, respect- 

 ively, 9, 9, and G salmon were caught ; while in 1875 in the same localities 

 there were caught 205, 154, and 120 large fish. During the following 

 years the salmon tisherie;? were not so productive, owing to unfavorable 



