3i6 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



tisation of salmon in the rivers of France that flow into the Mediterranean, strongly 

 support this conjecture. 



Tasmania has naturally been most reluctant to accept so uncompromising a verdict respecting 

 her prospects of becoming a salmon-producing country, and it has been a sorry and thankless 

 office on the author's part to be forced time and again to refuse a certificate as a botid fide Salmo 

 salar, to various and sundry salmon-trout and brobdingnagian common trout, which have been 

 submitted for his judgment. Other high priests from the ranks of fishery experts have even been 

 brought out from tiie old country to prophesy better things ; but the comfort so dearly brought 

 was on a par with that conceded to the Moabites by the Prophet Balaam — unless the declara- 

 tion that certain of the fish would be sold as salmon in the Irish market was a sufficient 

 satisfaction. An elegant silvery fish, termed the bass, Labrax lupus, it may be here added, 

 is also sold, with its spinous fins removed, as salmon, in many market towns of the Welsh 

 Principality. 



In face of the facts recorded in the preceding paragraphs, the attempted acclimitisation of salmon 

 either in Queensland or any other Australian colony, is not recommended. The introduction, in 

 fact, of any exotic species, where a country already possesses good indigenous fish is scarcely to be 

 encouraged. The indiscriminate distribution of brown trout in every accessible river in Tasmania, 

 has already exterminated from many of them a most excellent native grayling, Prototroctcs maro'iia, 

 which, both for the table and for the capital sport it yields to the fly-fisher, is held in high 

 repute. The species in a few more years, if not aided — as it has been practically demonstrated 

 by the author that it can be — by artificial propagation, will probably become extinct in that colony. 

 Queensland already possesses many excellent fish varieties well worthy of attention, when times 

 are riper, in the direction of artificial culture and propagation. The genuine barramunda, Osfco- 

 glossiim Leichardti, if all the good things said of it be true, is a first-class table fish, which rises 

 well to the fly, and might be advantageously introduced into the rivers south of the Fitzroy 

 and its tributaries. The giant herrings, Clianos salinoncus and Mcgalops cyprinoides, are, like 

 the English salmon, anadromous species, migrating between the rivers and the sea ; and for 

 their excellent esculent properties, are, as already shown, extensively cultivated in India. The 

 tassel-fishes, Polynemi, include also a number of species of similar habits, large size, and excellent 

 gastronomic and sporting qualities. With all these, and many other valuable indigenous varieties 

 to draw upon, Queensland has less cause, probably, than any other Australian colony to look 

 abroad for species to acclimatise. 



The potentialities of the oyster fisheries of Queensland and the Barrier district 

 are very extensive. As suggested in a preceding chapter, there are vast quantities of 

 the essentially marine species, Ostrea tnordax and Ostira nigro-iuargiuata, which grow in 

 the greatest profusion on the reefs and islets of the Barrier system, that are especially 

 eligible for tinning or other methods of conservation. Respecting the ordinary commercial 



