TRANSMISSION OF SALMON EGGS TO AUSTRALIA, ETC. 829 



services of the Victoria to complete the work ah^eady so far advanced — 

 is emineutly reasonable. AVhen private liberality and enterprise have 

 done so much towards the conferring of a great benefit upon the 

 country, it would be churlish to a degree if the state were to refuse to 

 assist in the little that still remains to be done. Sir Samuel imported 

 the ova at his own cost, and hatched them out in his own hatching- 

 boxes, and it only now remains to transport the 28,000 infant salmon 

 tjj.at form the magnificent residt of his labor and outlay to waters suit- 

 able for their growth and increase. The Victoria could not be more 

 usefully employed than on this errand. It would only be a matter of 

 20 or 30 tons of coal, and some extra wages. Probably £100 would 

 cover the whole cost. Further, if there is anything that the railway 

 department can do to further the distribution of the young fish, that 

 also should be done, promptly and cheerfully. When the history of 

 fish acclimatization in Victoria comes to be written, there will be several 

 of our older colonists who will be entitled to warm commendation for 

 their exertions in the cause. About twenty-one years ago Mr. Edward 

 Wilson showed what could be done in the matter by transferring the 

 cod from an affluent of the Murray into an affluent of the Yarra, thus 

 giving this noble fish an entirely new habitat of great extent. A little 

 later Mr. Learmonth introduced the same fish into Lake Burrumbeet. 



J. C. Firth to tJie Melbourne Argus of January 9, 1878. 



Sir: My attention has been drawn to a letter appearing in your 

 issue of November 30 from Sir Samuel Wilson, detailing his operations 

 relating to the hatching of some 50,000 salmon ova recently received in 

 Victoria from California. Every one will be pleased at so successful a 

 result, and grateful to Sir S. Wilson for the care he has taken with so 

 valuable a consignment after it reached his hands. 



It is, however, I think, to be regretted that Sir S. Wilson, through 

 inadvertence or some other cause, omitted to state to whom the colony 

 of Victoria is indebted for so great a boon as the Californian salmon. 

 As I have had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the matter, 

 I will, with your permission, supply the information so innocently omit- 

 ted by Sir S. Wilson. 



In June last Sir Samuel applied to me to i^rocure 50,000 salmon ova 

 from California. I informed him that, though almost too late, I would 

 wiite the Hon'. Spencer F. Baird, chief of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission at Washington, by the next mail. 



I wrote jVIr. Baird,' acquainting him with Sir S. Wilson's request, and 

 asked him, if j)ossible, to confer a lasting obligation on the colony of 

 Victoria by sending 50,000 salmon ova. In due course,- Mr. Baird 

 courteously replied, acceding to the request, should the lateness of the 

 order i^ermit of its execution. By next mail I conveyed this intimation 



