interesting communication on Pisciculture in Tasmanica from Judge 

 Francis, who would l)c recognised Ity all as an authority on the subject, 

 and he had much pleasure in bringing it under the notice of the 

 meeting : — 



" My Dear Sir, — You know how fully I have shared your wishes 

 and hopes with regard to Tasmanian pisciculture. I have now seen a 

 good deal of its very satisfactory results, and am sure you will listen 

 favourably to a few suggestions for rendering its success even more 

 brilliant." 



"As regards two of the fish now thoroughly naturalised, the tench 

 and the perch, everything seems to have been done to establisli them 

 in their appropriate waters. Only I tliink some pains should ha taken 

 to make the people of this island aware that they are not summer lish. 

 I have heard several persons complain that specimens which they have 

 tried have not been good lish for the table. They catch them, say in 

 December, when lank and sickly after spawning, and then wonder 

 to find them soft and flabby. It would be wonderful were they other- 

 wise. Reckoning by analogy from their respective times in England 

 the perch ought to spawn in October, and the tench towards the end 

 of November. The tench "comes round" I think the quicker of the 

 two, and I have little doubt that both of them, for various reasons 

 which your own better knowledge will supply, recover flavour and 

 firmness quicker here than at home. Still, March should be regarded 

 as the earliest month in which either can be really in season, and both 

 ■will be at their best during the winter months. Perch-fishing in tlie deeps 

 from May to August ought to give excellent sport followed by a no less 

 excellent repast. Tench I have caught chiefly in soft cloudy spring 

 days ; they are good about up to their spawning time. If caught in a 

 muddy water they should be kept a week or a fortnight — the longer 

 as their colour is darker — in the clearest water obtainable a hoop-net 

 or rabbit-hutch makes a good purgatory. 



" We come now to the trout. These are doing remarkably weU in 

 point of size, and fairly, though very unequally, as regards number. 

 In accounting for this diff"erence, I should say generally that I think 

 the stock have been placed too much in the lower and heavier reaches 

 of the rivers, and not supplied hberally enough to the upper, fleeter, 

 waters, where the best spawning beds are mostly found. No doubt this 

 is in a measure remedied by the ascending mstinct of the fish towards 

 breeding-time ; but this rarely carries them far, and is weakest in the 

 case of heavy, well-fed fish like those of the Derwent pools. I have no 

 doubt, for instance, that a vast deal of unproductive spawn has been 

 deposited in coarse stony gi-avels in the lower reaches of the Derwent, 

 Ouse and Clyde. In all these, the deeps — those of the Derwent espe- 

 cially — contain very large trout, but there are no small trout, or next 

 to none, on the shallows where they ought, by this time, to be swarm- 

 ing. On the other hand, the fish turned out in the upper waters of the 

 Clyde have multiplied greatly. So have those in the Ptussell's Palls 

 stream, which affords fleet water and good breeding ground from its very 

 mouth. I know also one or two rivulets where they are doing well. 

 On these grounds I would strongly recommend that of the next dis- 

 posable stock a supply should be sent : First to the neighbourhood of 

 Dunrobin Bridge, and that of the fine gravel beds near the mouth of the 

 Stjrx. Secondly, to the Ouse, say a mile and a half above Cawood. 

 Thirdly, to the ilussell"s Fall stream, some way about the Fenton Forest 

 dam. The ford, where the road crosses al)out 4i miles from Fenton 

 Forest, would be an excellent place. If more should be available then, 

 turn some out as far as may be above the * Cataract, ' which is passable 

 for salmon, but not for trout. You know all about Lake St. Clair, and 



