16 



water of the Derwent, four miles above the point to which the 

 tide reaches. At the time Mr. Ramsbottom so reported there 

 were no indigenous fish (except eels) of one pound weight in 

 the fresh waters of the Derwent, and the only common trout 

 which had been then liberated were the thirty fish turned into 

 the Plenty ; it follows, therefore, that Mr. Eamsbottom either 

 did see grilse, as there was nothing that he could mistake for 

 them, or that he deliberately stated that which he knew to be 

 untrue. It is unnecessary to tell those Fellows of the Society 

 who knew the late Mr. W. Ramsbottom, and who remember 

 the devoted zeal and ability with which, in spite of severe 

 illness, he laboured for the success of the experiment, that he 

 was incapable of making a deliberate misstatement of even 

 the slightest fact. 



In May, 1866, a second shipment of salmon ova arrived, 

 and with them a number of salmon trout ova. From this 

 last shipment some 6,000 smolts were liberated during 1867 

 and 1868. Of the salmon trout, 496 only were hatched, and 

 and of these more than 100 died before they reached the smolt 

 stage. Of the survivors over 100 were permanently retained in 

 a breeding pond, so that something less than 3)0 salmon- 

 trout were liberated in the Derwent, with the second batch of 

 6,000 salmon. 



In October, 1869, two salmonoids were caught in the salt water 

 estuary of the Derwent. One of these Dr. Griinther pronounced 

 to be an abortive salmon trout, on the assumption that no mi- 

 gratory salmon could breed in the colony, and that the speci- 

 men was therefore a stunted individual from one of the 

 English eggs. 



In December, 1?69, a third salmonoid, which had been some 

 six weeks longer in the salt water, was caught in the Lower 

 Derwent, and of this fish Dr. Griinther wrote, that it presented 

 the usual characters by which the true salmon (Salmo salar) is 

 distinguishable from its nearest allies. 



Since 1869, many smolts, identical, as I believe, with that 

 last sent to Dr. Gunther, have been captured. 



As the habits of the two migratory species, Salmo salar and 

 Salmo trutta, are, so far as can be ascertained, similar, as they 

 inhabit the self-same rivers and coasts, is it not manifest 

 that, all things being equal, the one species is just as likely 

 to succeed in Tasmania as the other? We have seen that 

 about 8,500 salmon have been liberated to about 300 salmon 

 trout, and that of the salmon, 2,500 have had two years start 

 of the salmon trout ; and these facts alone would go far to 

 convince any man that any given migratory salmon taken in 

 the Derwent for several years to come, would be a true 

 salmon, and not a salmon trout, and therefore they materially 



