FISH ACCLIMATISATION. 23 



been captured, that the Cotter E,iver is teeming with them, 

 and that from thence they are entering the Murrumbidgee 

 River. Wliile tliey record no results from the Yass and 

 Naas E/ivers, they report that in the second year after the 

 liberation of the parent fish in the Little and Snowy E^ivers, 

 experiments they made resulted in the netting of some 

 hundreds of small fish. 



Some eighteen months since a trout over 2 feet in length, 

 very probably one of the yearlings brought over fromBallaarat, 

 was found by Mr. N. Lockyer, of the Colonial Treasury 

 Department, stranded on the banks of the Molonglo River. 

 Mr. Lockyer kindly presented this trout to the writer, who 

 had it attractively mounted and displayed at the recent 

 Tasmanian Exhibition as a specimen of the rapid growth 

 which, under favourable conditions, trout can attain in New 

 South Wales. [^See illustration.] 



An interesting account of the journey from Ballaarat, 

 written by Mr. Gale, will be found in the appendices. 



The acclimatisation of several of the species of American 

 Salmonidse was a matter which the writer took opportunity to 

 bring under the notice of the Fisheries Commissioners. He 

 proposed to introduce the Calif ornian salmon {Salmo quinnat), 

 the schoodic salmon [Scdmo sehago, var. salar), and the 

 Californian or rainbow trout {salmo irideus). Some of the 

 characteristics of these fish are hardiness, greater vitality, 

 more rapid growth, and a capability .to develop in waters of 

 a comparatively high temperature, such as would certainly 

 be fatal to some other species of the Salmonidse. Each 

 of these characteristics seemed to point to these species as 

 eminently suitable to New South Wales waters. The proposal 

 advanced to a certain stage, the supply of the ova having 

 been undertaken by the American Consul, G. W. Grifiin, 

 when circumstances arose to prevent the experiment from 

 being carried into efl^ect. Since that attempt, however, the 

 common brown trout {Salmo fario) has been on repeated 

 occasions successfully hatched from ova supplied from New 

 Zealand and Victoria, as well as a few Loch Leven {Salmo 

 levenensls) and brook trout {Salmo fontinalis) , and liberated 

 in the early fry stage in the various suitable streams. The 

 temperature of Sydney, hov»^ever, proved too high to allow of 

 the growth of the fry to the yearling stage, but in order to 

 accomplish this a proposal has been under consideration to 

 erect a fish hatchery on the elevated plateau at Berrima, 



