(Coregonus lavaretus) and grayling, while in the lower-lying lakes. the vendaee
(Coregonus albula) is of paramount importance. All the species of fish mentioned,
with the exception of the charr, are also found in the Baltic;' the grayling,
however, is caught only in the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia.
The crayfish-fishery, too, in Southern and Central Sweden, is of no little importance.
In 1907, however, the so-called “crayfish disease” broke out in Lake
Miilaren, with the result that it has exterminated the crayfish in that lake, in
Lake Hjalmaren, and in a number of streams and lakes communicating with
the waters mentioned.
In general, the lake fisheries of Sweden have not been managed or utilized in
a rational manner, but still they have been fairly productive (see above). The
average annual yield of the Swedish fresh-water fisheries has been calculated as
being no more than about 3 kilograms of fish per hectare, while average
lakes in the north of Germany yield 15— 30 kilograms. One chief reason
of the poor yield of the lake-fishery in Sweden is, that it is carried on and
managed in an unsatisfactory manner, for the number of owners of the fishing
rights is so great that it is impossible to carry on the fishing in accordance-
with a uniform and properly organized plan.
Fish Culture.
Sweden is, as far as is known, the first country in Europe where attempts
were made to assist the spawning of the common inland lake fish
by means of special contrivances, for the purpose of improving the
fishing. As early as 1761, the Mayor of Linköping, K. F. Lund, published
in the “Proceeding's of the Royal Academy of Sciences” an essay
called “On the Planting of Fish in Inland Lakes”, where he gave an account
of a method for hatching out perch and other inland lake fish (not
salmon idse) in pens lined with brush. His attemps were afterwards forgotten
until about 1850, when attempts at fish-culture were again begun,
and it was not until 1865 that a complete institution for salmon-cultiva-
tion was established at the expense of the State, whose “ normal institution”
afterwards became a pattern for a large number of such institutions
throughout the country, of which there are now between thirty
and forty.
Fish culture in ponds was carried on in ancient times at the monasteries and!
on many large estates, especially in Skane, where the carp was introduced from.
Denmark at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but these ponds were afterwards
neglected. The culture of carp has been recommenced of late years,
and in Gustavsborg in Skane there is a large number of carp-ponds on the
German model, built in 1879. From these ponds about 20 000 kronors’ worth
of carp was sold as early as in 1896, principally to Germany. The carp, however,
thrive as far to the north as Varmland, where experimental carp-breeding
ponds were laid down at the Langbanshyttan estate; it appears, however, that
carp-culture cannot be carried on so far to the north to much advantage. In
the highlands of Smaland and north of them, the tench can probably occupy
the same position in regard to fish-culture in ponds as that taken' by the carp
in the southernmost parts of the country. The culture of both these species
of fish has received a great impulse since the formation, in 1906, of the fisheries
association called the “Sodra Sveriges Fiskeriforening”. The most important
experiments with regard to pond fish-culture and lake fisheries, together
with the investigations in connection with these subjects, have been carried
out chiefly at the experimental fishing and biological station at Aneboda,
in the northern part of Kronoberg Lan, and partly at Eriksdal, in Malmohus-
Lan, and the lakes rented around these places by the named association. The
fish-culture establishment which was founded in 1894 by a company at Angels-
berg in Vastmanland, and the chief end of which was the hatching and further
culture in ponds of two members of the salmon family from America, the brook-
trout (Salmo fontinalis) and the rainbow-trout (Salmo irideus), has lately been
enlarged, the company having erected a system of ponds on ground leased from
the State and forming part of the Kloten Crown Park in Örebro Lan. The same
kind of pond culture has been going on for some years at Kallefall in Skara—
borg Lan, and a company is engaged in similar work at Kalarne, in Jamtland.
It is remarkable that the stocking with the above-mentioned brook-charr of lakes,
so far north as in the neighbourhood of Are has had very good results. In 18 9 0
there was founded,- at the expense of the State, a Fish Culture and Fresh Water-
Biological Establishment at Finspang in Ostergotland, with a number of small ponds,
as 'Jan experimental station for pond fish-culture and fresh water biological investigations.
As the supply of water proved to be uncertain, the establishment.
— in accordance with a resolution of the Riksdag g g ||h a s been closed and another,
larger State establishment, for the culture of salmon, charr, and gwyniad
from Lake Vattem, ;is to be erected at Motala.
Repeated attempts at oyster culture have been made in the coast-archipelago-
off Bohuslan, the last being in accordance with a new method elaborated by the
director of the Swedish Hydrographic-biological Commission. Unlike former
attempts, this new effort seems to promise success. The same Commission
has also begun experiments with lobster culture, for which the west coast of
Sweden- offers many possibilities. There is reason to hope that these attempts,
will succeed, and that they will result in lobster culture on a large scale being-
carried out on behalf of the State.
Fishery Legislation.
In regard to the ownership of fishing-waters, there were provisions
even in our oldest laws and in the Code of 1734, too, hut laws tor the protection
of fishing were not made until late in Sweden, namely the “ Common.
Fishery Law” of 1766. The Fishery Law now in force is of October 17,
1900. The provisions in regard to right of ownership have, however, now-
been deleted from this law and arranged as a special “Law concerning the-
Right to Fishing Waters”, of June 27, 1896.
Nowadays, the State owns only few fisheries. The majority belong to private-
persons, according to the common rule that the owner of the shore also owns,
the water and the fishing; but in the villages that have not undergone reparth
tion (cf. p. 31), this right is only applicable to the villages themselves, while the-
individual owners in the village have equal fishing rights within the territory of
the -village. The shore ownership enjoyed by the various villages extends, in
lakes, streams, and the bays and fiords of the archipelago, to the boundary-lines.
On the open sea-coast and in the largest inland lakes, the shore-ownership extends-,
only 180 meters outward from the shore, measured from a depth of 2 meters;
beyond this, the fishing is free to all Swedish subjects. Furthermore, there is-
the important provision that in rivers and sounds, one third of the width of the