FEESH WATER FISH ACCLIMATISATION. 103 



state to Sydney. For reasons already assigned, the immediate future 

 operations of the company will be confined to mullet only. When the supply 

 of whiting is in excess of the demand, all that can be obtained will be treated 

 after the style of English kippered herrings. 



Presh Water Eish Acclimatisation. 

 By John Gale, Queanbeyan. 



In July, 1888, Mr. P. Campbell, J. P., of Tarralumla, Queanbeyan, and I, 

 went from the latter town to Ballarat, Victoria, and obtained from the 

 Acclimatisation Society there a number of young trout, English perch, and. 

 Russian carp. We were to have been supplied with, about 1,000 trout, 

 which were placed in a nursery pond awaiting our arrival ; unfortunately, 

 the day before reaching our destination it was discovered that the pond had 

 been netted by poachers, and the greater part of the fish stolen. We were 

 fortunate, under the circumstances, in obtaining over 300 trout. They were 

 yearlings, measuring from 3 inches to 5 inches in length, and strong vigorous 

 fish. They were of two varieties — the American brown trout and the English 

 spotted trout. In addition to these, we had about eighty perch and about 

 forty carp. We were furnished with tin cans of about 6 gallons capacity 

 each — -two for the trout, and one each for the perch and carp. For the 

 purpose of aerating and agitating the water in the cans containing the trout 

 — an essential matter so far as trout in travel are concerned — we were also 

 provided with a pair of bellows with 3 or 4 feet of india-rubber tubing 

 attached to the nozzle. From the Acclimatisation Society's ground, on the 

 margin of Lake Windouree, to the Ballarat Railway Station is about 2 miles 

 distant, and I conveyed them thither in a waggonette. My companion had 

 been detained at Melbourne by sickness, and on this morning I was to meet 

 him on the Ballarat Station, and proceed witb our delicate freight to 

 Melbourne. During the stay of about thirty minutes on the railway plat- 

 form at Ballarat, the fish tanks were allowed to rest without being aerated — 

 an almost fatal oversight — for when the train arrived from Melbourne with 

 my friend, and I took him to see the fish, the trout were all on their backs. 

 Fortunately a few minutes' use of the bellows and tubing brought them 

 round, and from that moment till we reached our destination there was 

 no cessation in the use of the bellows. We had, by the indulgence of the 

 Secretary for Railways, Victoria (Mr. Labertouche), a large saloon carriage 

 to our exclusive use, so that we had every facility for manipulation. At 

 Melbourne we had to wait six hours for the through express to Sydney. 

 The station-master there kindly placed our fish in charge of a porter, whose 

 duty it became during that time to incessantly use the bellows. From 

 Melbourne to Tass (New South Wales), a journey of about fourteen hours, 

 we had a compartment of a railway carriage to our exclusive use. It was 

 through the night, and my companion and I took watch and watch of three 

 hours each, during which the bellows were not permitted to be at rest more 

 than ten minutes at a time. Till we reached Tass we had lost but one fish — 

 a trout. Thence we had a special coach to carry us to Queanbeyan, a 

 distance of 45 miles. At Jeir, about 20 miles from Tass, we diluted the 

 water with some fresh from a small stream. There had been only one 

 change before this, at Albury, water from -the Murray River being sub- 

 stituted for that obtained from Windouree Lake. I feared the consequences, 



