82 FISH CULTURE. 



was out, and the fine gravel employed would afford 

 no safe holes and crevices for the fish to lie in while 

 absorbing the bladder. If they came above the gravel 

 they could not get back again, and would be washed 

 helplessly to and fro with every motion of the water, 

 which cannot be altogether overcome ; and this, I 

 think, must eventually be fatal to them. I confess 

 that I have no very sanguine faith in the success of 

 the attempt to acclimatize salmon in Australia, if 

 what I hear of the rivers is true. The case seems to 

 be surrounded with very grave difficulties. The rivers 

 themselves may be suitable enough for salmon ; but I 

 have heard that the mouths of them swarm with 

 small sharks, and what a famous meal one of these 

 of dog-fish size would make on a shoal of young 

 smolts entering the sea for the first time. If, how- 

 ever, a portion of them should still escape these 

 perils it would be but a small one, and the experi- 

 ment would have to be repeated for three or four 

 years successively before any visible success could be 

 expected to attend it. The Australian Government 

 should set such a premium on these small sharks as 

 would make it worth the while of the fishermen to 

 catch them by every means in their power, so that 

 their numbers might be greatly subdued ; and pos- 

 sibly a few years of active operations in destroying 



