69 



FURTHER NOTES ON THE SALMON EXPERIMENT. 



By Morton Allport, F.L.S., F.Z.S,, &c. 



(Bead 10 t7i November, 1874J 



Since our last meeting, namely, on 19tn October last, the 

 handsome fish, now exhibited, was taken by a seine net in 

 lower Sandy Bay. This specimen, though rather larger, is in 

 every minute particular identical with that sent to Dr. 

 Giinther early in 1870, and by him pronounced to present all 

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

 distinguishable from its nearest allies. Of course all the 

 arguments used to prove that the fish of ] 870 was bred in the 

 colony, and could not have been the produce of an English 

 egg, apply with much more force to the present specimen. 



When this fish was first brought to me I supposed it to 

 be an unusually large smolt of this season, but upon con- 

 sideration and after dissection, I am inclined to believe that 

 it is one of last year's smolts, which would in December next 

 have returned as a grilse to the upper waters of the Derwent. 

 The size of the fish, which weighs nearly a pound, is greater 

 than that of any smolt just from fresh water of which I can 

 find any record, and upon dissection the deep red colour of 

 the flesh and the layers of fat about the pyloric coeca were indi- 

 cative of a longer residence in saH water than would have been 

 possible for a smolt of this season. Unmistakable evidence 

 of its having been captured low down the estuary of the 

 Derwent was afforded by the presence in the stomach of the 

 remains of three anchovies, which fish are not to be found 

 in the bays above the town till later in the season. If I 

 am right in my conjecture that this is one of last season's 

 smolts, approaching grilsehood, it is almost certain that the 

 migration of the smolts during the first season does not 

 extend to any great distance seaward, unless some untoward 

 circumstance, such as a failure in the supply of food, may 

 cause them to move to more remote waters. 



On the 28th October last, a school of twenty-five fish made 

 their way out of the River Plenty into the race which supplies 

 the breeding ponds, and of these fish one was at once for- 

 warded to me by Sir Robert Officer, who, struck with its 

 brilliant silvery colour, and bearing in mind that the fish were 

 clearly gregarious, and were taking advantage of a spring 

 fresh to travel from the Plenty to the Derwent, and from 

 thence probably to the salt water, came to the very natural 

 conclusion that it was a salmon smolt, but from which con- 

 clusion, I regret to say, I differ. The remainder of the twenty- 

 five fish were detained in one of the breeding rills at the 



