436 
THE FISHING GAZETTE 
[June 10. 1893 
THE SALMON FISHERIES OP 
NORWAY. 
By G. L. 
The elasticity of what at first sight would seem 
to be a comparatively strictly defined space is 
exemplified in the red salmon fishings of Norway. 
More than twenty years ago, when first we visited 
the land of the fjord and the fjeld, the old hands 
oracularly informed us that there was no fishing 
left unleased in the whole country worth having. 
We are confident, however, that we are well 
within the mark in saying that, for every angler 
who at that time crossed the stormy waters of 
the North Sea, there are at least twenty nowa¬ 
days, and somehow they seem all to find water on 
which to exhibit their skill. Rivers which were 
then locked upon with contempt on account of 
their insignificant volume ; rivers which contain 
and never will contain anything else but sea and 
bull trout; great reaches of river approaching so 
closely to the saltwater as to be either tidal or semi- 
tidal, and the fishing on which is therefore of the 
most uninteresting character—all these have 
been taken up of late years, to the no small edifi¬ 
cation and amusement of those who knew Norway 
and its grand rivers some thirty years ago. 
How mysterious on the outward voyage in 
regard to their doings were these delightful old 
sportsmen until they found out we were not going 
near their own particular happy hunting, or 
rather fishing, grounds, and what appallingly stiff 
yarns did they spin, especially when the 
weather was conducive to the proper consump¬ 
tion of food; what “ haivers ” we used to have 
over the whisky toddy in the evenings. Particu¬ 
larly do we remember the tales related by a 
gallant old Scottish gentleman with reference to 
the rivers of Finmarken, land of the Laplander, 
the mosquito, and the reindeer; not only did 
they make our hair to stand fairly on end, but they' 
used to disturb our night’s rest, so portenjious 
were their dimensions. 
But it was all very delightful; the voyage out 
in congenial society ; the passage up the magni¬ 
ficent coast, with its snow-clad fjelds, its frown¬ 
ing precipices, its wild gorges and torrents, its 
deep-set fjords, piercing with their dark blue 
waters the mountain ranges of the mainland ; the 
comfortable farmhouse down in the valley, from 
whose door the angler might gaze with delighted 
eye on the noble river, as it swept in a series of 
stately reaches through pine-clad terraces and 
lofty hills. 
Moreover, July, the month jpar excellence on the 
majority of Norwegian streams, is one during 
which there is but little to be done in the way of 
sport in England or Scotland, and a few weeks 
among the salmon is a fitting preparation for the 
joys of the 12ih. Nevertheless, and especially in 
these somewhat hard times, salmon fishing may be 
too dearly bought, and there is many a spot within 
these British Isles where a better value can be had 
in the way of fishing than in Norway at the present 
day, even in the month of July. Indeed, to judge 
from the competition that takes place for any 
tract of salmon water, however modest may be its 
credentials or recommendations, we are disposed 
to think that rents in Norway are fast reaching a 
culminating point, if they have not already done 
so, ar.d that people will get tired of paying long 
rtnts under the auspices of Bergen agents and 
other=, in exchange for very moderate sport. 
To Norway-going anglers, however, there would 
seem to be no end, and so numerous are now the 
rivers in that country which are held under con¬ 
tract by Englishmen, that anything materially 
affecting the salmon fisheries of Norway gener- 
allj’, whether in the nature of legislation or other¬ 
wise, must be of no small interest to a large 
body. 
In this paper, therefore, we propose briefly to 
refer to the new law that came into force last 
3 'ear, and to consider its incidence and probable 
effect upon the fisheries, judging as far as may 
be from the effects that somewhat similar legisla¬ 
tion has had wf en applied to the fisheries of Great 
Britain and Ireland. 
Grievous and reiterated complaints have come 
of late years from the owners of the riv« r fisheries 
as to the falling off in the numbers of the ascend¬ 
ing fish ; and, as long ago as the year 1880, Herr 
Landmark, the able Government In«pector of 
Fisheries, caused a series of inquiries to be made 
locally with regard to the majority of the west 
coast rivers. The result of these investigations 
went to show that on the extensive tract of coast 
between Stavanger and Romsdalen the take on 
the rivers (with the exception of the Laerdal and 
the Vosse, which had for many years been to a 
great extent in the hands of English sportsmen) 
amounted to about one-fifth or one-sixth only of 
what it had been thirty years before, and this 
decadence was unanimously ascribed to the rapid 
and enormous increase in the numbers of the bag- 
nets in the fjords and along the entire coast. 
Of these there were in 1860 from 200 to 300 
only; in 1870 there were nearly 1,600; in 1880 
that figure had been doubled ; in 1890 there were 
5,400; and last year the number had increased to 
over 6,000. In the year 1880 the proportion of 
the total take of salmon throughout the country, 
which fell to the share of the river fishery owners, 
was 36 per cent., and in the following ten years 
this gradually fell to 23 per cent., as against the 
sea fisheries 77 per cent.; a serious dispropor¬ 
tion, and one which it is to be hoped may in time 
be amended by the new law, not only in the 
interests of the owners of river fisheries, but in 
those of the whole country. Years ago it was 
laid down by Frank Buckland in his report for 
1871, as one of the English Fishery Inspectors, 
as an axiom that in order to increase the stock 
of fish in a salmon river, it was absolutely neces¬ 
sary to gain the goodwill of the upper proprietors, 
and in the case now before us it has for a long 
time been apparent that this was being forfeited. 
The reports from the vast majoritv of the great 
salmon breeding streams of Norway grew 
monotonous in the similarity of their character; 
they told of valuable fisheries that had existed not 
so very long ago, but which had been gradually 
falling away for years, and they called aloud for 
protection against the bag-nets which were ruin¬ 
ing them. Here, and in this connection, it is to 
be remembered that the rights of the river 
fishers are of much older standing than those of 
the sea. For long the former were almost the only 
salmon fishers, and at one time more salmon were 
taken in the Mandal river than have been 
captured in the whole of the Lister and Mandal 
Amt together during the last twenty years. 
While there is hardly a river fishery that is not 
registered, many of those on the coast are not 
taken into consideration as they did not exist at 
the time of the last revision. There is no doubt, 
too, that the salmon fisheries, both sea and 
river, of the whole country have greatly bene- 
fitted by the fact that the owners of the latter 
have so largely disposed of their rights for sport¬ 
ing purposes, and, although the weekly close time 
does not apply to angling, the number of fish 
taken from a river which is let for rod fishing is, 
of course, infinitely smaller than if it were netted 
by the owners themselves. 
In the expansion which has taken place in the 
Norwegian salmon fisheries during the last thirty 
years those of the rivers have not only failed to 
share, they have continued to fall off, and their 
claims for a remedy against this state of things 
have been met by the Act of 1891, which came 
into operation on Jan. 1, 1892, except in so far as 
the provisions relating to the size of meshes in 
nets and the weekly close time are concerned, 
which did not take effect until this j’ear. 
The most important clauses in this new law 
are: (1) The extension of the weekly close time 
for the nets to three days a week, from 6 p m. on 
Fridays to 6 p.m. on Mondays; (2) The yearly 
close time for the nets to commence Aug. 26, 
instead of Sept. 14; and (3) The increase in the 
size of the mesh, from knot to knot, of nets to 
6 .j centimetres (or 2.56in.) when wet. 
Analogous to a certain exrent in their character, 
though much more favoured by nature in climate 
and local conditions, the salmon fisheries of 
Great Britain and Ireland afford a convenient 
and not unsuitable parallel; and the lessons 
which they teach are the more valuable as their 
importance has been recognised, their every 
detail and surrounding closely studied, and they 
have been made the subject of much legislation 
for hundreds of years. Such legislation goes 
back as far, at any rate, as Magna Gharta, and 
that the lawgivers meant business, and recog¬ 
nised the importance of the interests at stake, 
may be judged from the stringent penal clauses 
in the various Acts. In the fifteenth century, 
indeed, by one of these, a third conviction for 
infringement of the autumn close season entailed 
the penalty of death. 
That the labour and thought expended in this 
connection were not unavailing, is shown by the 
^igbly satisfactory state of the British and Irish 
fisheries up to the beginning of the present 
century, when they had undoubtedly reached a 
condition of great excellence. 
About that time, however, the social develop¬ 
ment began to assume larger dimensions ; a great 
impetus was given to all kinds of industries and 
manufactories, and the river courses began to be 
much more used for purposes inimical to the 
salmon fisheries. The increased population and 
the better means of communication, taken in 
connection with the greatly reduced yearly take, 
caused by the traffic and pollutions of various 
kinds, brought about a marked rise in price, and 
it became evident that if the salmon were to be 
saved from destruction, the law must extend 
them protection. 
Accordingly in 1860, two Commissions to in¬ 
quire into the conditions and surroundings of 
the fisheries of England and Scotland were ap¬ 
pointed by Parliament. By one of these, 18,000 
depositions were taken, by the other 12,000, and 
the result of these painstaking and numerous 
inquiries was a very considerable curtailment of 
the previously existing fishing rights in both 
countries. 
The new law was promulgated in 1861 as 
regards England, and before long a distinct im¬ 
provement became apparent In 1863, that is to 
say before the new law could have taken effect, 
the value of the total take was estimated no 
£17,000; in five years it had risen to £30,000, 
and in 1871 to £100,000, while after that date the 
improvement continued. As in the case of the 
English and Scotch fisheries, a great falling off 
had occurred in those of Ireland, and a similar 
revision of the laws was had recourse to. 
Instances of the success of the new legislation 
are given in the Official Report for the year 
1865, from which it appears that a stretch of 
river, about four miles long, that had been sold 
at auction a fr.w years before for £5000. was then 
worth £45,000. Rents of water lor netting pur¬ 
poses went up, and in many cases were trebled, 
while for sporting ones, the increase was still 
greater; and from £300,000 in 1857, the value of 
the yearly take of salmon in Ireland had risen 
in 1881 to quite double that amount. 
In regard to Scotland, the law of 1828, which 
permitted the net fishing to be carried on until 
the 14th of September, did an infinity of harm, 
and so clearly was this recognised by the fishing 
owners on the River Tay thatof their own accord 
they agreed to stop fishing on the old date in 
August to which they had been accustomed. It 
is curious to note, from the statistical reiurns 
before and after that date, how much the fishing 
fell off with the late autumn close time, and how 
quickly it recovered when the old date was 
recurred to. The result was that when the legis¬ 
lation of 1861 stepped in, the consequent improve¬ 
ment was not so apparent as in England and 
Ireland, the action of the law having, in the case 
of the Tay at any rate, been anticipated by that 
of the fishery owners themselves. 
(To be continued.) 
THE GUT CROP OF 1893. 
We have received the following from Messr.s. 
AUcock and Co., of Standard Works, Redditch : 
“The manager of our factory at Murcia has 
just completed his purchases from the worm 
breeders; your readers will be interested to know 
the result of the gut crop for that year. The 
quantity of silkworm gut produced is not more 
than half what was made last year, as the price 
offered for silk rose from 120 reals per arroba to 
220 reals. There is an average production of 
thick gut, so that for the present prices remain 
as usual, but if the price for silk is maintained, 
as seems probable, the prices of gut must 
advance next year 40 or 60 per cent.” 
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