240 FISHES 



Mahurangi, Mangakahia, Punui and Hutt, Napier district, Southern 

 Wairoa,Manawatu, Wanganui ; Grey, Wairau, Hurunui, Waimakariri, 

 Rangitata, Heathcote, Shag and Oreti; (1877) Northern Wairoa, 

 Mangakahia, Punui and Hutt; Wairau, Motueka, Hurunui, Waima- 

 kariri, Heathcote, Rangitata, Shag, Kakanui, Waipahi and Makarewa; 

 (1878) Upper Thames; (1880) Hutt. Since 1901 they have been 

 placed almost exclusively in the Waitaki and its tributaries, though 

 a few were put in the Selwyn and the Seaforth-Mackenzie ; and (in 

 1913) some hundreds were liberated in the Leith and Waikouaiti 

 streams. More recently the Hokitika River has been chosen as the 

 west coast stream to be stocked. 



In a letter written some years ago asking for information as to 

 the failure to establish the quinnat salmon in the rivers of New 

 Zealand, Marshall McDonald, Commissioner U.S. Department of 

 Fish and Fisheries, said: 



We have experienced the same difficulty in attempting the acclimatisation 

 of this species upon our eastern coasts; all experiments having failed 

 completely after expending a large amount of money, and being tried on a 

 scale of magnitude and under a variety of conditions sufficient to test fully 

 the capabilities of our eastern streams in this direction. We have attributed 

 the failure to the different temperature conditions prevailing in the rivers 

 of the east and west coasts at the spawning season, which is from July to 

 September. The streams of the west coast at this period, fed as they are 

 by the melting snows in the mountains at the head of the large rivers, 

 present a relatively low temperature which invites the ascent of the salmon 

 in obedience to the natural instinct which pervades the entire family to 

 move from warmer to colder waters in seeking their spawning grounds. 

 On the east coast at this season of the year our rivers are warmer than the 

 adjacent seas, and we have concluded therefore that the failure to enter 

 our streams is due to the higher temperature conditions prevailing in 

 them. This is probably true in regard to your own waters. The summer 

 temperature of the Pacific Coast streams in which the salmon enter at 

 the season of spawning rarely reaches 60 F. During the season on our 

 eastern coast the temperature rises to at least 70 F., and sometimes reaches 

 a maximum of 80 to 85 F. 



Mr Ayson writes me (August i7th, 1915) in regard to this com- 

 munication : 



Quinnat salmon begin spawning about ist April, and are finished by the 

 end of May. In America there are two distinct runs, which are called the 

 summer and winter runs. Marshall McDonald in the report you quote 

 evidently referred to the summer run. The winter run commences well 

 on in October, and finishes in December. The Quinnat eggs with which 

 we stocked the Waitaki were all from the winter-run fish, and it is interesting 

 to note that we have only a winter run of spawning salmon, so far, in the 

 Waitaki; which would go far to show that eggs taken from winter-run 

 fish in America only develop winter-run fish in this country. 



