17 



strengthen the conviction the Commissioners have arrived at,. 

 :hat the Derwent Grilse is a true salmon. 



, As the last of the smolts from English eggs left for sea in 

 1868, it is certain that the Derwent Grilse must have been 



■ bred in Tasmania, for no smolt could have been four years 



• reaching the grilse stage, and yet have exhibited the appear- 

 ance of vigorous health which this fish presents, besides 



' which the well-developed eggs found in the ovaries prove that 

 it was fully capable of reproducing its species, as hundreds of 

 others doubtless have done and will do, in the upper waters of 

 the Derwent or some of its numerous tributaries. 



Most Fellows of the Society know that disastrous failure 

 of the whole salmon experiment has been over and over again 

 predicted by some of the leading scientific men of England. 

 Some have even gone so far as to prophecy the same for the 

 common trout, of which species 320 fish only were hatched 

 from English eggs; but we hear rather less on the latter 

 subject at present, tlie perpetual production, from a dozen 

 different Tasmanian rivers, of hundreds of specimens of Salmo 

 fario, weighing from one pound to ten pounds, having had a 

 salutary effect in convincing sceptics that they may have been 

 a trifle too hasty in settling Nature's laws for her. 



With regard to the salmon, I did not at first share in the 

 extreme confidence of success that some few appeared to 

 entertain, being quite aware of the almost insuperable diffi- 

 culties to be overcome, and that, after all, the history of the 

 migratory salmon was so little known after it left the fresh 

 water that our coasts might be found to present some physical 

 features fatal to the fish ; but since Mr. Ramsbottoin first 

 reported the return of the grilse, I have never for an instant 

 doubted our final triumph. 



Some of the information gained prior to commencing the first 

 successful shipment might have materially altered the views 

 of those scientific men in Europe who have predicted failure, 

 could such information have been patent to them. The 

 strongest argument ever used against trying the experiment 

 was, that, as our rivers and seas were already tenanted by 

 their own peculiar forms of life, the attempt to force in others 

 by the introduction of a mere handful into waters already 

 stocked would inevitably fail ; but the argument was worthless, 

 because for some thirty years our fishermen had been indus- 

 triously preparing the estuary of the Derwent for new forms by 

 carefully scraping out with small meshed nets every indigen- 

 ous enemy, and at the same time increasing the food for the 

 new comers by taking away the fish which formerly kept such 

 food down, while the fresh waters of the Derwent, though 



