31 



between their young ; and as the mature salmon more closely re- 

 sembles the salmon trout than the kmg-fish resembles the barracouta, I 

 should expect to find that the difficulty of distinguishing the one smolt 

 from the other was enhanced. And if we turn to Mr. Youl s letter, 

 we find Mr. Lord, from the outer appearance of our fish, at once 

 pronounced it a true salmon, and, after re-examination again pro- 

 nounced it a true salmon, but, after having the fish left with him, changed 

 his opinion. Unfortunately, Mr. Lord does not tell us why he changed 

 his opinion ; but, from Mr. Youl's observations as to his own reason 

 for thinking the fish a salmon trout, it is all but certain they were both 

 puzzled by the presence of the vomerine teeth in our fish, and in the mature 

 salmon trout {Salmo trutta) whilst such teeth were absent in the mature 

 salmon {Salmo salar). And here I must trouble you with two short ex- 

 tracts from " Yarrell," who, at pages five and six, says : — " The teeth of 

 the salmon are short, stout, pointed, and recurved. As stated in the 

 generic characters, they occupy five situations at the top of the mouth : that 

 is, a line of teeth on each side of the upper jaw, a line on each palatine 

 bone, with one line on the vomer between the palatine bones when young ; 

 but the salmon loses a portion of the vomerine teeth during the first visit 

 to salt water. I have observed that some specimens of the migratory or 

 sea trout carry their vomerine teeth longer than the salmon ; and those 

 trout which do. not migrate, appear to carry their vomerine teeth longer 

 than those trout which do migrate. The teeth on the vomer of the 

 salmon, when the fish is old, seldom exceed two or three in number, some- 

 times only one, and that placed on the most anterior part. The salmon 

 has, besides these, two rows of teeth upon the tongue, and one row along 

 the outer upper edge of each lower jaw-bone." In speaking of the 

 teeth of the salmon trout, at page 79, Yarrell says : — " The teeth 

 are more slender, as well as more numerous, than in the salmon or grey 

 trout ; those on the vomer extending along a great part of its length, and 

 indenting the tongue deeply between the two rows of teeth that are there 

 placed, one row along each side." Does not this at once reconcile the 

 presence of vomerine teeth in our specimen with its being a true salmon 

 smolt ? The Fellows of this Society well know how much we are already 

 indebted to Mr. Youl for his unceasing exertions in this undertaking, and 

 the Salmon Commissioners had no right to expect him to give up more of 

 his valuable time for their advantage, still I hope that before the season 

 was quite over our fish may have been compared with an undoubted salmon 

 smolt from Stormontfield which had reached the same stage of develop- 

 ment, because I believe that vomerine teeth will be found identical in the 

 two specimens. 



Mr. Davies, in referring to a paper by Mr. Barnard (read July, 1868) 

 on the Esparto grass, mentioned that the Hobart Town Mercury news- 

 paper had been printed for several months on paper manufactured from 

 that material ; and asked if Mr. Barnard had acquired any fresh know- 

 ledge on the subject. 



Mr. Barnard stated that since the paper referred to by Mr. Davies, he 

 had laid further information on the subject before the Society (July, 1869), 

 from which it was evident that the cultivation of the grass could not be 

 attempted in this colony with any chance of profit or success, and he had 

 taken no further interest in it. 



Mr. M. Allport observed it was well known that no vegetable product 

 ■which required cultivation could be profitably grown for the manufacture of 

 paper. Even if the wastelands of the colony were sown with Esparto grass 

 seed, as had been suggested, this climate would be unsuitable for the plant. 



Od the motion of Mr. Justice Dobson, a vote of thanks was given to 

 Mr. Allport, Dr. Agnew, and the donors of presentations, and the meeting 

 separated. 



