822 EEPOST OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



And yet, marvelous to relate, not one single parr has yet been seen (so 

 far as tlie salmon commissioners are aware) in the fresli waters of the 

 Derwent or any of its tributaries ; and this is more amazing, because 

 these fish talte the worm or artificial fly with the greatest readiness, and 

 would have been almost certain to make their presence known to any 

 angler in their immediate neighborhood. 



A writer in Queensland, a few months ago, also referred to this extraor- 

 dinary absence of the parrs, and used it as a powerful argument against 

 there being any salmon in Tasmania; but he went rather too far, and 

 used the same argument to prove that the migratory salmonoids, which 

 he admitted were taken in the Lower Derwent, were only salmon trout, 

 ignoring the fact that the parrs of the salmon trout (identical in appear- 

 ance and habits with those of the salmon) were equally remarkable for 

 their api^arent absence. If amongst the dozens of suitable tributaries 

 of the Upper Derwent we are unable to find a trace of these hundreds 

 of thousands of salmon parrs, which it is imi)ossible to doubt must be 

 there, we need scarcely be surprised at our inability to light upon the 

 mere handful of mature salmon which we are yet likely to have in the 

 wide waters of the deep Derwent estuary. Some day an errant fisher- 

 man on one of the small streams about or beyond the lakes, such as the 

 Clarence, the Pine, the Nive, or the Cuvier, where nobody ever thinks 

 of fishing now, will probably drop on such myriads of these parrs as will 

 enlighten us as to the supj^ly of grilse below, and the knowledge so 

 gained may lead to the obtaining fresh suftplies of ova for the stocking of 

 our Northern and Western rivers, because the parrs never move far from 

 the original spawning-place before assuming the smolt dress ; and their 

 detection would enable us in the following winter to watch for and take 

 the parent fish on their certain return to the same spawning-beds. 



Before concludmg, it may be as well to refer to the one instance in 

 which it is just possible we have hit. upon the spawning-bed of a true 

 salmon. In the early part of the past winter a paii? of large fish were 

 observed spawning in the Plenty, and were netted by the bailiff" in 

 charge at the ponds after the bulk of the ova were deposited. 



The female, after having parted with the greater part of her ova, 

 weighed more than twenty pounds, and the male weighed nearly nine- 

 teen pounds. Mr. Eead, one of the salmon commissioners, examined 

 these fish carefully, and both he and the bailiff are of opinion, from the 

 external appearance of the fish, that they were true salmon, or at any 

 rate belonged to one of the two migratory species. 



After stripping the remaining ova (almost one thousand in number) 

 from the female and applying the artificial process of imiiregnation, both 

 fish were returned to the river. 



Subsequently a few of the naturally-deposited ova were, with judi- 

 cious forethought, taken from the rid, placed in one of our hatching- 

 boxes mentioned, and then kept carefully separated from other ova. 



The artificially-impregnated ova failed, but that so, prudently taken 



