A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



done by landowners themselves, there are few districts where 

 they might not recoup themselves for the expense by leasing 

 their rights to local fishing clubs ; or, on the other hand, 

 they might on reasonable terms give such clubs or associations 

 facilities for making fisheries for themselves. 



In discussing this matter I must leave salmon-angling out 

 of account. That must always remain a sport for the few, 

 owing partly to its limited extent in the United Kingdom, 

 partly to the irreconcilable conflict of interest between nets 

 and rods, and partly to the wholly negative results of artificial 

 propagation of salmon in hatcheries. Upon this last point I 

 am aware that I may be called to account. Well, I have had 

 long acquaintance with salmon fisheries both in this country 

 and in Norway ; I have seen hatcheries maintained over a very 

 great number of seasons, admirably managed, wherein as much 

 as 95 per cent, of the ova laid down are successfully hatched ; 

 but never yet have the owners of these rivers and hatcheries 

 been able to demonstrate the smallest perceptible result upon 

 the stock of mature fish. The futility of attempting to replenish 

 by artificial means a salmon river which has been unduly 

 depleted by netting has been thoroughly proved in the Oder, 

 once a most productive fishery. German pisciculturists are 

 no bunglers at their business ; diligently have they wrought 

 for years to repair the exhaustion of this river by turning in 

 hundreds of thousands of fry, but all in vain ; salmon have 

 become so nearly extinct that the capture of one weighing 

 13 lb. in the autumn of 19 12 was recorded in a local news- 

 paper as a notable event. 



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