113 



the J have been exposed on our coasts, what must be the number 

 of smolts that have passed down the Derwent, and what the still 

 greater number of fry in the earlier parr stage on the gravelly 

 rapids of some tributary or tributaries of the Upper Derwent ? 

 Can we set such numbers down at less than hundreds of 

 thousands ? And yet marvellous to relate, not one single 

 parr has yet been seen (so far as the Salmon Commissioners, 

 are aware) in the fresh waters of the D'erwent, or any of its 

 tributaries. And this is the more amazing, because these fish 

 take 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 neighbourhood. 



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

 this extraordinary 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 

 appearance and habits with those of the salmon) were equally 

 remarkable for their apparent absence. 



If amongst the dozens of suitable tributaries of the Upper 

 Derwent, we are imable to find a trace of these hundreds of 

 thousands of salmon parrs, which it is impossible 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 deej) Derwent 

 estuary. Some day an errant fisherman 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 fish- 

 ing now, will probably droj) on such myriads of these parrs as 

 will enlighten us as to the supply of grilse below, — and the 

 knowledge so gained may lead to the obtaining fresh supplies 

 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 

 sj)awning beds. 



Before concluding it may be as well to refer to the one in- 

 stance in which it is just possible we have hit upon the spawn- 

 ing bed of a true salmon. In the early part of the past winter 

 a pair 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 nineteen poimds. Mr. Eead, one of the Salmon Com- 



