"^S Thiiiy-sixlh AiuiikiI Meetiiiy 



ing Govt'i'inuciital favors, several inquiries on tlie question hav- 

 ing been always condueled willi a view to giving their claims 

 satisfaction. 



It is only since the said year that some resistance has begun 

 to show itself against tlieir ever renewed encroachments. Owing 

 to the initiative of some men of position (among whom may Ix' 

 mentioned M. du Saiissay, Conseiller General d'lndre et Loire; 

 M. Herault, President de Chanibre a la Cour des Comptes ; MM. 

 Audif?red, Gacon. Pauliat, senators; MM. Peronneau, Petitjean, 

 Befumade, members of Parliament; M. de Paulze d'lvoy, a 

 diplomat formerly attached to the French Embassy in London), 

 the twenty-four Conseils Generaux of the Loire basin appointed 

 a committee to inquire into the actual state of inland fisheries in 

 general, and of salmon fisheries in particular, in the said basin, 

 and to promote the adoption by the Government of the different 

 measures that would be recognized as necessary for bettering 

 the said fisheries. 



The committee, which numbers no less than sixty-nine mem- 

 l)ers, all of whom are either senators, deputes, or conseillers 

 generaux (something, mutatis mutandis, like county council- 

 lors), met for the first time in April, 1899, and have held since 

 (an unprecedented record for Parliamentary commissions) some 

 twelve or fourteen sittings, at Poitiers, Tours, and Paris. A very 

 long program has l)een elaborated, the principal points of which 

 are the following: Suppression of Inscription Maritime on the 

 estuaries and lower reaches; suppression of fixed engines; addi- 

 tion of private meml)ers to the already existing formal Commis- 

 sion de la Peche fluviale, in the Department of Agriculture; con- 

 centration of all fishery matters for the twenty-four departments 

 of the Loire into the hands of a special Government commis- 

 sionei-: removal of all obstacles to the ascent of fish towards the 

 upper watei-s; and the putting up of fish passes, &c. 



At first the commission met with the Govt'i'nment's liost will ; 

 ^LM. Mougeot and Kuau especially (the present and the former 

 Ministres de TAgriculture) had no words gracious enough to 

 emphasize its merits. It did obtain some important results. A 

 stop was put to the excesses of Inscription Maritime; sundry 

 abuses were reformed on several important wiers on the Vienne 

 and the Creuce, and an inquiry was ordered for the enforcement 



