Fisherman of the Eastern Alps. 1 19 



proprietor of a hotel, is never a rich man. 

 On poor streams, where there is little or no 

 market for the fish, a stretch of water will be 

 rented for 1, 10s. or 3 a-year. Another 

 lake or stream, where the fish are good, and 

 where there is a brisk demand on the spot, or 

 the means of communication with towns are 

 easy, will fetch from 50 to 100 a-year. 



The professional fresh -water fishermen are 

 a class with whom travellers are not usually 

 brought much into contact; but no one can 

 go a few times into the Eastern Alps with a 

 fishing-rod without becoming acquainted with 

 them ; for, with some exceptions, when the 

 water happens to be the property of a large 

 proprietor, it is the fisherman who has first 

 to be sought out. Although a peasant, or 

 a little above one, he considers himself some- 

 what superior to the ordinary workers of the 

 village ; for he earns his bread without the con- 

 stant toil which the peasants of the Alps have 

 to undergo. He throws his nets, and brings in 

 his fish and sells them to the hotel-keepers, or 

 despatches them to the town, and his day's 

 work is done ; and he has then only to mend 

 his tackle, smoke bad tobacco, and drink five 



