COXCISE HISTORY OF THE ACCLIMATISATION 

 OF THE SALMONID.E IN TASMANIA. 



By p. S. Seager, 

 Secretary to the Fisheries Board of Tasmania. 



The idea of acclimatising the English salmon (Salmo salar) 

 in Tasmanian waters was entertained by some of the colonists 

 at a very early period in our history. In the year 1SJ.1, as 

 recorded in Vol. 1, p. 28 1, of the " Proceedings of the Koyal 

 Society of Tasmania," the late Captain Frederick Chalmers, of 

 Brighton, in Tasmania, applied to Dr. Mackenzie, of Kinillan- 

 by-Dingwall, Eoss-shire, Scotland, for salmon fry to bring to 

 Tasmania. The fry were not supplied, but the correspondence 

 is interesting, and shows how little was tlien known of the 

 subject when Dr. Mackenzie suggested that artihcially 

 impregnated ova deposited in a basket of fine gravel and 

 plunged in a tank would require no more attention until it 

 was landed in Tasmania, where it could be put into a pail and 

 carried to any stream and there deposited. Dr. Mackenzie's 

 last letter to Captain Chalmers, of 12th July, 184'1, says: — 

 "Next year you can have some \ry sent south to you in better 

 time if you like, or if you will give me the address of some 

 careful confidential friend, I will send him south two baskets 

 containing impregnated roe, say in September, one basket to 

 be sunk in water in England to produce live fish for your next 

 year's trip, and the other to be shipped to your address in 

 Australia, where it is probable you will receive it long before 

 the fry begins to chip the shell. All that will be nec;^ssary is 

 to direct jour friend to keep the basket under water in some 

 fresh stream till tlie ship is ready to sail, when one can be 

 transferred to the ship's tank." Dr. Mackenzie had evidently 

 a very limited knowledge of the dilliculties which had after- 

 wards to be overcome in the transport of salmon ova before 

 success was secured. There is no record that Captain Chalmers 

 proceeded further witli his experiment. 



In the year 1848 ]Mr. .fames L. JJurnett, of the Tasmanian 

 Survey Department, when on leave of absence, visited the 

 Duke of Sutherland's salmon fislieries in Invcrness-shire, and 

 consulted the manager, Mr. Young, on the practicability of 

 introducing salmon and trout into Tasmania. jNlr. Young 

 suggested two methods — one to bring out the spawn, and the 

 other to bring out young fish, giving the preference to the 

 latter. In a letter' to Mr. Burnett, of 23rd October, 1818, ho 

 says : — " It would be a grand undertaking', and perfectly 



