42 



It is only in well-stocked rivers in G-reat Britain tliat "breeding 

 fish can be caught for the purpose of obtaining ova for arti- 

 ficial rearing, and the long-coursed Derwent, stretching some 

 1>G miles from New Norfolk to Lake St. Clair, will be but 

 thinly stocked, even though we should be far more successful 

 on this occasion than on the last. Until we obtain ova taken 

 from fish in this colony the experiment cannot be looked upon 

 as commercially successful, and to place any portion of the 

 original stock of fish in other widely scattered waters, will be 

 to increase the difficulty of obtain breeding fish to an incal- 

 culable extent. On the other hand, once obtain spawn from 

 fish in the Derwent, proving the success of the experiment, 

 and all difficulties vanish ; breeding establishments would 

 soon be formed on all suitable rivers, and millions of fish 

 turned out. 



Again, our Victorian neighbors to whose generous liberality 

 the experiment owes so much of its success, would have just 

 cause of complaint against us, if we made any distribution 

 in which they did not equally participate, and the sole reason 

 why they did not retain a portion of the present batch of 

 ova, is that their Acclimatisation Society cordially agrees with 

 the Salmon Commissioners here, that every fish (even if there 

 were a miUion) should go into the one river till a return of 

 breeding fish is obtained. 



