Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/278

208 FISH E R I E S lias just been report-d ] by Yir F. V T . Daft, the British consul at Gothenburg, to the Foreign Office. He states that "great shoals of herrings of the large kind which disappeared from this coast in 1809 have ni>v made their appearance agiin north of Gothenburg, on the coast in this country. The first appearance of ths herring took place at Christinas (1877), when whales were seen following the shoals of herrings towards the coast." This is by no means the first time that herrings have returned to a particular locality after an interval of very many years. FRENCH AND DUTCH FISHERIES. The French fisheries on the coast of the Channel are of much the same kind as those ou the English side trawling, drifting, and line- fishing. Trawling is carried on to a considerable extent from Boulogne, T report, Calais, and somo other places where there is convenient access to railways and recently two companies have been established for trawling with steamers along the sandy coast between Arcachon and the mouth of the Gironde. On the coast of Brittany the long-standing fishery for sardines, or, as they really are, young pilchards, is regularly worked. It is remarkable that this fishery is almost entirely dependent for its success ou a good supply of cod-roes, in which a large trade with Norway and other places is carried on solely for this purpose, the separated ova of the cod being freely scattered among the sardine nets in order to attract the fish. French and Dutch vessels work regularly in the North Sea for herrings and cocl, and the French fish in large numbers along the east coast of England in company with English boats during the herring season. They also take part in the Kinsale mackerel fishery. The French fisheries at Newfoundland have been already noticed; considerable attention is also given by the French to the cod fishery at Iceland About 200 French vessels visited Iceland in 1877, and during the five years 1872-G the average annual produce of about 120 vessels from Dunkirk alone was 5 million kilos, of fish, and of oil about 500,000 kilos.- The French oyster lishene.; have for many ye ir.s received considerable attention, and at Arcachon especially great success appears to have attended the cultivation of the beds. Eighty-five per cent, of the oysters obtained from these fisheries are said to be the produce of four or five breeding grounds, Auray and Arcachon being the most prolific. The total produce of all the French oyster fisheries in 1875 reached the enormous number of 97,227,000 oysters. 13 ECHINUS FISHERY. On the French and Italian coasts of the Mediterranean the echini or sea-eggs, animals belonging to the echinoderm or star-fish tribe, are regularly collected for the market, and are in great request among the poorer classes of the population. They are eaten uncooked, the egg-shaped spiny shell being divided into two parts by a single cut with a knife, and the soft and slippery contents then readily extracted. The echini form part of the various marine productions well known at Naples as fruit i, di mure. TRIPAXG FISHERY. The tripang or bcche cle mer belongs to the order Ilolothuruidte or sea-cucumbers. Representatives of the group are found in British seas, but by no means so abundantly or of such general large size as in tropical waters. Several species go under the commercial name of " tripang"; they are collected among almost all the islands of the Indian Archipelago down to New Guinea and Australia, and also on the north coast of Ceylon. In shape the tripang resembles a cucumber, but with a circle of short branched tentacles at one end, and surrounding the mouth. The colour is generally black, more or less varie gated with red or orange, and although sluggish in its 1 Commercial Reports, No, 2, 1878 (Herring Fishery). 2 Consular Reports, part v. , 1877. 3 See n Report by Major Hayes to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1878, which contains an imiuen.se amount of valuable information. movement:.:, the animal has great power of contracting ami altering its form. Coral reel s are favou. ite haunts of the tripang, and it i.s found in both deep and shallow water. The only preparation it receives after being gutted consists in drying ia the sun and smoking over a wood fire. Macassar i.s the centre of the tripang trade, but the whole produce of the fisheries goes to China, and the trade i. j . entirely in tho hands of native merchants. (E. v. n. u.) Fish in English hr,v fall under the general principles of the law as to animals /(TOE r ,:<itiii t.c. All mankind, says Blackstone, Lad. by the grant of the (. ivaior an original right to pursue them; and thin Datum I right still continues unless so far as it is restrained by the civil law. Accordingly everybody lias a righh to take fish in the feas, in public riveiu, or in private rivers belonging to himseh . In piivate (i.e., non-navigable) livers the right of fishery belongs prinia foci:- to the owners of the. land on either side, in public or navigable rivers to the public at large. In both, however, an exclusive light of fishery may exist, by which, the presumptive right is exclude.!; and this, in the case of public rivers, can only take place by grant of the crown. Since Magna Cliarta the crown can no longer make such grants at lea.st such seems to be the better interpretation of the words in the statute. These various rights are more or less roughly distinguished in English law as follows. A common fishery is the right of fishing in the sea and public rivers open to all the public. As< v< ral fishery i.s the exclusive right of an individual, derived through or on account of ownership of the soil. A free fishery is an exclusive right of fish ing iu public water, derived from royal grant. A common of fishery io the right of fishing "in another man s water," like common of pasture, &c. These rights include fish of all descriptions, with this exception that the crown has an old prerogative right to the whale and sturgeon, which, " when thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the property of the sovereign on account (as it is said in the books) of their superior excellence." A curious distinction is made between the whale and the sturgeon : DC sturgionc olservctur quod rex ilium halebit intcyriun; tic oalena vcro sujficit si rex habcat caput ct regina caudam. As to the mode in which fish may be caught there does not sccin to be any restriction at common law. It is a question, however, whether a wear, by which is meant a fixed structure ou the bed of the river, the object of which is, either by means of an apparatus which then catches them or by impeding their progress, to prevent all or nearly all the fish from passing upwards," 4 is not illegal at common law. In the case of a public river a structure of this sort would be objectionable on the ground of its impeding the navigation, and in a case relating to the liivcr Severn the judges held that the crown could not derogate from the public right of navigation by any grant to erect wears in a public river. The legal writer from whom we have quoted above, while stating that no case had arisen directly ou the point in England, Scotland, or Ireland, is of opinion that "both wears and fixed nets, and all other apparatus which prevent fish passing to or fro are illegal at common law and form a good ground of action, " even although they may not obstruct navigation. Though one riparian owner may, by fishing by net or rod at all hours and by means of servants and assistants, almost use up the fish as effectually as by keeping fixed nets, this kind <.f user could, not properly be a cause of action, just as one owner lio has a large number of cattle could not be liable to an action at the suit of another who has no cattle, and so makes no use of the water. But it is otherwise where a total obstruction occurs. Hence, even independently of any statute, any fixed apparatus in a river or stream which prevents the fish going up to the other riparian owners is a good cause of action at common law, as it deprives him of one of the natural riparian rights." A considerable number of statutes have been passed en the subject of fisheries, the most important of which are those relating to salmon. See SALMON*. A short Act was passed in 187G enabling boards of conservators to fix a close term for trout, commencing not earlier than 2d September, nor later than 2d November, and extending over 123 days. A bill for the protection of freshwater fish has passed through parliament during the present session (1878). Sections 8 and 9 of the Salmon Fishery Act 1861 (which relate to fish ing with light spears and other prohibited instruments, and to using roc as a bait) shall, as amended by the subsequent Salmon Fishery Acts, apply to trout and char in all waters within the limits of the Act, which are the same as the limits of the Salmon Act. For all other freshwater fish, not migrating to or from the open sea, a close season is established from 1st March to 31st May, both 4 Fishery Laws of the United Kingdom, by James Patcrson, Lon don, 18G3.