FISH AND FISHERIES. 155 



The acclimatization of fish has not been carried out to a large extent 

 in New South Wales. The river trout (Salmo fario) has been 

 introduced with undoubted success into the I'ivers of Tasmania and 

 Victoria, and into some of those of New South Wales. Shipments 

 of salmon ova were made to Australia and Tasmania in 1849, 1852, 

 1860 and 1862, but none reached the colonies alive. After many- 

 experiments by Mr. Buckland as to the vitality of salmon ova when 

 frozen for over 100 days, a shipment was sent away. In April, 1864, 

 the first salmon ova (Salmo salar) arrived in Tasmania, and with them 

 a few ova of the common trout, no salmon-trout being included in that 

 shipment. In the spring of 1865 a number of smolts, estimated at 

 about 1,500, went to sea. They had been vei-y successfully hatched, 

 and the loss was not great considering the enormous distance the ova 

 had been brought. The packing was under the able superintendence 

 of the late Mr. F. Buckland, and Mr. J. A. Youl, an old colonist 

 I'esiding in London,* and the whole success of the experiment was 

 mainly due to the late Mr. Morton Allport, whose untimely death 

 (September 10th, 1878) has been an incalculable loss to every depart- 

 ment of science in Tasmania. In the same year that the smolts went 

 to sea in Tasmania (1865) about thirty common trout were liberated in 

 the river Plenty, and about 150 were retained in the breeding pond. 

 In the following spring of 1866 the remainder of the salmon smolts 

 from the first shipment, about 1,000 in number, took their departure 

 for the ocean. Several grilse of 5 lbs. weight were reported sub- 

 sequently in the fresh waters of the river Derwent. 



In May, 1866, a second shipment of salmon ova arrived, and with 

 them a number of salmon-trout ova. From this shipment, as far as 

 regards the salmon, the hatching was very successful, and some 6,000 

 smolts were liberated in 1867 and 1868. The salmon-trout ova were 

 not so successful. Only 496 were hatched, and of these more than 100 

 died before they reached the smolt stage. Of the survivors, 100 were 

 permanently retained in a breeding pond, so that something less than 

 300 salmon-trout were liberated, while 8,500 salmon were sent forth. 

 In October, 1869, two salmonoids were caught, one of which Dr. 

 Gunther pronounced to be a salmon-trout. In December, a third was 

 caught which was more developed, having been six weeks longer in 

 salt water. This was pronounced by Dr. Gunther to be a true salmon. 

 Since 1869 the number and size of the salmon captured have steadily 

 increased. The late Governor, Sir Frederick Weld, frequently 

 captured specimens of over 1 lbs. weight. It is still maintained by a 

 few sceptical individuals that the fish caught are salmon-trout, and not 

 salmon, but as the habits of the two migratory species, {Salmo salar 

 and Salmo trutta) are similar, as they inhabit the same rivers and 

 coasts, one species was just as likely to succeed as another in Tasmania. 

 However, as about 8,500 salnaon have been liberated to about 

 300 salmon-trout, and of the salmon 2,500 have had two years' start of 

 the salmon-trout, it is manifest that the large fish captured are more 

 likely to be true salmon, and that the experiment as far as Tasmania is 

 concerned is a complete success. Already they aflbrd excellent fishing, 

 and at the falls and weirs on the Derwent the number of the fish making 



* The boxes of ova were buried in ice sent for commercial purposes. The ova 

 were in boxes as before described. 



