134 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



That this temperature interpretation is the only one that will logically 

 account for the decided objections manifested by Salmo salar to establish itself in 

 Tasmanian waters all other conditions being so favourable is now pretty generally 

 recognised. Tasmania, nevertheless, if not possessing salmon, may rest contentedly on 

 her laurels as being facile princeps among the surrounding colonies in the production 

 of Brobdingnagian trout. At the world-famous Trout-Hatchery on the Biver Plenty, 

 of which the writer is proud of having been entrusted with the enlargement and re- 

 organisation on modern principles, trout have been bred and the ova dispatched far 

 and wide for stocking the streams of New Zealand, Victoria, New South Wales, 

 South Australia, and, in these latter days, Western Australia. The latest operations 

 undertaken by the writer in the last-named colony included the establishment of a 

 trout-hatchery in the neighbourhood of Bunbury, and the distribution of fry raised 

 there from Tasmanian ova in various of the more suitable rivers in the southern district 

 of that colony. These included the Rivers Preston, Collie, Capel, Blackwood, Hervey, 

 and Murray, from some at least of which streams satisfactory bags of trout are being 

 hopefully anticipated in a few years' time. 



English Perch, Perca fluviatilis, the Tench, Tinea vulgaris, and also the Prussian 

 Carp, Carassius vulgaris, have long since been successfully introduced into Australian 

 waters, the first-named species thriving most conspicuously in the artificial lakes and 

 reservoirs in the vicinity of Ballarat, Victoria. In the writer's humble opinion there 

 are, however, a number of indigenous fresh-water species more worthy of attention 

 than the several last-named European types. Silver Eels, Anguilla australis, of high 

 gastronomic excellence, and very nearly resembling the much esteemed English species, 

 A. vulgaris, abound in the Southern Colonies, and about two years ago were experi- 

 mentally introduced by the writer into rivers in the southern district of Western 

 Australia, where they were hitherto unrepresented. According to recent reports, 

 they have already commenced to multiply in the Upper Avon, where the majority were 

 liberated, and, being distributed from this centre, should hereafter prove a welcome 

 addition to the riverine settlers' commissariat. 



Some little space may now be devoted to those representatives of the Austra- 

 lian fish fauna which are of an essentially phenomenal but non-economical character. 

 Among these, no more appropriate group can be selected for illustration than the 

 Lophobranchiate family of the Syngnathidse, which embraces such types as the Pipe- 

 fishes, Sea-horses and Sea-dragons. A few of the more notable of these are accordingly 

 included in the coloured drawing, Chromo-Plate VI., which faces the commencement 



