826 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



efficacious way of propagating the salmon artificially is to stick as closely as 

 possible to the natural way and to plant the fry in those mountainous courses 

 of the river where their natural home is found. This is not to shut our eyes 

 to the dangers threatening the young salmon during their passage to the sea — 

 in my opinion the best way to avoid this danger is not, however, to grow them 

 in a more or less artificial way near the mouth of the river, but to stock the natural 

 spawning places so richly that a sufficient portion remains, even if a large 

 number of them is destroyed during their stay in the upper parts and their 

 descent to the sea. The solid ground of nature is in this, as in so. many other 

 cases, the best to build upon. 



FISHING REGULATIONS. 



Now coming to the second part of my little discourse, I prefer to give 

 you the headlines only of the existing regulations of the Rhine salmon fishing. 

 You know that the Rhine flows through different countries, and you understand 

 that regulation of the fishery in such an international river based on inter- 

 national agreement for a long time has been considered as the best — as the only 

 efficacious one. The first serious effort to conclude an international treaty 

 between the countries interested in the salmon fishing of the Rhine dates from 

 1869, but the war of 1870 postponed for several years the conclusion of such a 

 treaty. New negotiations were taken up about 1S84, the treaty was concluded 

 in Berlin in 1885, and has now been in force since August, 1886. Originally it 

 was concluded for ten years, after that period each of the powers interested 

 having the right to break oft" the engagement with one year's warning. Though 

 the treaty has perhaps not quite satisfied those who expected from it great 

 betterment of the salmon fisheries of the Rhine, there has never been seriously 

 a question of giving it up. 



As far as the Netherlands are concerned, as a good regulation of the salmon 

 fishery existed already, important changes were caused by the treaty in two 

 regards only — the closing of the fishery on Sunday and the closing of the fishing 

 with big seines a fortnight earlier (on the 1 5th of August) than hitherto. These 

 changes are quite in accordance with the general idea of the treaty. Those who 

 fish in the lower parts of the river are to spare a considerable part of the ascend- 

 ing salmon, that those fishing higher up may profit by this and also that part of 

 these fish may reach the upper region, there to spawn. The fishermen of the mid- 

 dle and higher regions, on their part, must also take into consideration the inter- 

 ests of the whole river. They are to spare a part of the ascending fish for natural 

 propagation. They are to take into their custody the natural spawning places 

 and moreover to take care that ripe or nearly ripe fish caught in spawning time 

 are used for artificial reproduction. 



