1870. ] INTRODUCTION OF SALMON INTO TASMANIA. 29 
that at any rate it would not be difficult to hook a fish, even if it 
could not be landed ; but it must be remembered that the fish to be 
caught were yet few in number, and that small indigenous fish swarm 
in myriads, furnishing such a supply of food that no bait will be 
likely to tempt the Salmon till this profusion is somewhat thinned. 
It is possible that Grilse or Salmon might have been taken in the 
tidal waters between Hobart Town and New Norfolk, a great part of 
which has been and could be worked with seine nets; but the local 
fishermen had so denuded the river of indigenous species of fair size 
by excessive netting at all seasons, that they had been for several years 
compelled to use nets of so small a mesh that even aSmoltcould not pass 
through; and rather than run the risk of sacrificing the whole experi- 
ment by the destruction of any of the small consignments of Smolts 
sent seaward, the Commissioners exercised the power given them by 
the Legislature, and closed the river above Hobart Town altogether 
from the time the first batch of Smolts entered the brackish water. 
All attempts to take fish having failed, when the first rains of winter 
came on and the fish proceeded further up the river, the Commis- 
sioners came to the conclusion that the first undeniable proof they 
should now get of the success of the experiment would be the cap- 
ture of Parr or Smolts in the coming spring, as such Parr or Smolts 
could only be the progeny of fish returned from sea, the last of the 
Smolts from the transported ova having left the ponds in the spring 
of 1868 and being therefore either dead or approaching grilsehood. 
In June 1869 the Trout again commenced spawning in their rill; 
and towards the end of the same month five pairs of the Salmon- 
trout (Salmo ¢trutta) formed rids on the shallows attached to their pool, 
which shallows are now, in October, alive with their fry. The suc- 
cess of this portion of the experiment may therefore be considered 
as complete as that of the Trout (8. forio), as a noble river, the 
Huon, has been purposely left unstocked, with the intention of 
turning into it all the Salmon-trout fry except those retained for 
a breeding-stock. 
About the middle of October 1869 a strong freshet came down 
the Derwent, the result of heavy rains at its sources; and on the 
night of the 21st of October four fishermen were hauling their 
seine on a sea-beach about two miles below Hobart Town, and on the 
opposite side of the estuary of the Derwent. At one of the hauls 
almost the only fish in the net was a well-grown healthy Salmon- 
smolt over 10 inches in length, and which, though taken in water 
as salt as the ocean, had but lately left fresh water; for the silvery 
scales rubbed off at the slightest touch, showing the colouring 
of the parr beneath. Half an hour later, and on a beach a mile 
nearer the town, a second Smolt, not quite so large as the first, was 
captured. The seine net used was a large-meshed one of an inch 
from knot to knot, which accounts not only for the capture of a 
single Smolt at each haul, though they are usually gregarious, but 
also for the unusual size of the specimens; the probability is that 
the net had in each instance surrounded a school, but that the or- 
dinary-sized fish had easily passed through, while these two, larger 
