452 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [16] 



salmon from reachiDg the upper and more favorable portions of these 

 tributaries of the Rhine. If Germany and Switzerland were for a num- 

 ber of years to cease plautiug salmon fry in the Ehiue valley, the results 

 of the Dutch salmon fisheries would soon undergo a change, and the 

 Dutch might be induced to carry on their fisheries in a more reasonable 

 way. But, as it is, we go on planting salmon fry from year to year and 

 only reap those fruits of our trouble which mere accidents procure 

 for us. 



That in spite of this, and in spite of unfavorable years, the salmon 

 fisheries on the Upper Ehine have, on the whole, progressed, will be 

 seen from the rent paid for the salmon fisheries near Badish and Swiss 

 Laufenburg. In 1860 the rent was 4,000 francs [$772] ; in 186G, 8,000 

 francs [$1,544]; in 1872, 17,000 francs [$3,011]; in 1878, 23,600 francs 

 [$4,554.80]; and in 1880, 30,500 francs [$5,886.50]. (See Circulars of 

 the German Fishery Association, 1882, p. 170.) 



A remarkable proof of the success of planting young salmon was fur- 

 nished in the river Kyll, flowing into the river Moselle below Treves, 

 where many years ago salmon had become a great rarity. After I had 

 in 1876 planted salmon fry in this river, by commission of the German 

 Fishery Association, the first salmon made their appearance in the Kyll 

 in the autumn of 1879, when about 30 were caught near Ehrang, while 

 in the autumn of 1880 the number rose to 150. We should not fail to 

 mention that the fish which were caught in the Kyll, in order to reach 

 that river, had to clear the weir at the junction of that river with the 

 Moselle, which they were enabled to do at certain times by the un- 

 usually high water. Many of the salmon, however, will have found it 

 impossible to do this, and they would remain in the Moselle and be- 

 come the prey of the fishermen of that river. The good salmon fisheries 

 in the Lower Kyll in the autumn of 1880 lowered the price of salmon 

 in that part of the country to 50 pfennige [11^ cents] jjer pound. As re- 

 gards the following years I have no statistics. 



Of late years the Fishery Association of the rivers Ruhr and Lenne, 

 at Menden, in Westphalia, has begun to jilant salmon fry, and already 

 good results are apparent, especially since the murderous trap at Broich 

 was abolished. Whenever the condition of the water is any way fa- 

 vorable, numerous salmon make their api^earance in front of the weir 

 in the river Ruhr, near Witten, and some of them even go as far as 

 Arnsberg, a thing which did not happen before for a great many years. 



Another, though not such a striking, example of the success of artifi- 

 cial salmon-culture was furnished last winter at Freiburg, in Baden, 

 when, favored by the high water, a number of salmon ascended the 

 river Dreisam as far as the city of Freiburg, no doubt as a result of the 

 planting of salmon fry farther up the river some years previous. The 

 oldest people at Freiburg do not recollect ever having seen salmon be- 

 fore in that part of the Dreisam. During ten days about 100 pounds 

 of salmon were caught, all young male fish, with the excej)tiou of an 



