igoi] Prince — Adaptation in Fishes. 217 



Humphrey Davy's dictum that salmon and trout will do so, but the 

 fastidious g-rayling cannot do so, it is possible that the variety of 

 fishes capable of acclimatisation in saline, alkaline or other waters 

 may be considerable. The sticklebacks, while normally frequent - 

 ino- fresh water, except G. spinachia, flourish in brackish water, 

 and in shore pools reached by high tides. The marine flat-fishes, 

 the flounder, &c., are found up rivers far from the sea, while the 

 striped bass has been successfully retained for years in fresh water, 

 but the climax is reached in that paradoxical fish, the blenny of 

 Ceylon and the Celebes, which habitually lives on damp rocks, . 

 leaping from one to the other, and shunning the water to avoid 

 being drowned ! Periophthahnus, as it is called on account of its 

 projecting eyes, leaps, when pursued, like a frog, and, as Dr. 

 Gunther says, seems to '* prefer escaping in that way to swimming 

 beneath the surface." 



The plasticity and adaptability of various fishes to new sur- 

 roundings is not only a matter of peculiar biological interest, it is 

 of eminent practical importance. Hence the brief sketch which I 

 have prepared has been amplified and in a somewhat detailed form 

 will appear as a special report in the forthcoming Blue Book of the 

 Fisheries Department to be laid before Parliament at the approach- 

 ing session. The liubject is one needing fuller investigation. If 

 barren waters remote trom the sea, and unfavourable, from con- 

 ditions of temperature, alkalinity, and the like, for indigenous 

 inland species, can be stocked with fine species of fish, marine or 

 brackish in their habitat, the possibility of conferring immense 

 benefit upon the public becomes plainly apparent. From our present 

 fragmentary knowledge it may be surmised that no small number 

 of species have such powers of endurance as to facilitate the work 

 of acclimatization. 



