136 SPORT IN EUROPE 



upwards of fifty thousand of them on Sundays, will in a few years 

 survive only as a memory, and that result will be owing- to the 

 behaviour of a few only who, disregarding the law, the morrow, 

 and their own interests, take everything, and more often than not 

 kill the little they leave. Petitions are continually being handed in 

 to the authorities. These agree in spirit. In various manner they 

 show that the fishery law, dated 1829, is more and more inadequate, 

 so that the introduction of fishing permits would have the approval of 

 all but the poachers. 



Our streams and rivers are almost wholly depleted, the result of 

 the defective state of our legislation and the obvious lack of sufficient 

 means of supervision. Compared with that of P" ranee, the production 

 of neighbouring countries is so prosperous that it provides not only 

 sufficient food for their own people, but also, as I have mentioned, 

 a surplus for our markets. By revising our laws and adopting the 

 legal modifications that have shown such good results in England, 

 Switzerland, and Germany, we could restore the natural wealth of 

 our French rivers at any rate to their level, if not indeed above it. 

 By furnishing means for the enforcing of a new law we could establish 

 regular officials, and it would hardly be fair to come on the Treasury 

 for the expense. The only way to ensure this cheap and wholesome 

 food for the nation, while at the same time keeping in the country the 

 many millions of francs that we pay away to foreign fisheries, is to 

 establish a fixed, proportionate right for each mode of fishing ; in other 

 words, fishery permits, 



I have sketched the present state of angling in France without 

 any intention of giving the situation any appearance of being hope- 



