PROCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER. li 



•fungus not more than one quarter of an inch in diameter, and as these 

 are provided with locomotive organs or cilia, wherewith they cau 

 traverse the water in every direction, it may be anticipated that in 

 those waters where the fungus is abundant, a wounded fish has little or 

 no chance of escape. There is yet another seed or spore known as the 

 *' oospore" by which this fungus may be developed, but which is of 

 much rarer occurrence, and provides for the latent or resting phases 

 of the species. As will be familiar to many present, a very destructive 

 outbreak of this fungoid disease attacked the salmon in the English 

 and Scotch rivers in the year 1878, and has been more or less prevalent 

 in later years. Thus, in the annual report of the local Board of 

 Conservators of the Tweed district for the year 1881, it is recorded 

 that no less than 14,600 salmon had succumbed in that river to this 

 disease, making with the two preceding years a total of 22,000. While 

 up to the present time nothing is known absolutely or accurately con- 

 cerning the immediate origin of these epidemic outbreaks, there is, I 

 think, much evidence to show, in the case more especially of apparently 

 healthy fish being attacked, that the absence of sufficient oxygen in the 

 water for the healthy maintenance of the fish, either through over- 

 crowding, abnormal temperature, or by direct pollution, represents a 

 very if not the most important factor. Notwithstanding, however, the 

 apparently exhaustive onslaughts of this formidable epidemic it is 

 satisfactory to know that the returns of the fish captured in these 

 previously affected rivers within later years has been in no way 

 diminished, but even increased. It is indeed advocated by some 

 authorities on fisheries matters that ^good is accomplished through the 

 visitations of this epidemic, since it Operates as a check by which the 

 old male fish or kelts, which systematically lay in wait for and prey 

 upon the young salmon smolts when descending to the sea, are periodically 

 eliminated. . . . With the true salmon, Salmo salar, however, the 

 case is different. The only breeding stock of these species that has been 

 available this past winter for artificial propagation has been a series 

 of 30 fish developed from the salmon ova brought out by the s.s. 

 Abingdon in 1884, hatched out that same year, and since retained 

 in the Ponds. These fish, or rather what remain of them up to the 

 present time, not having migrated to salt water, are in a relative 

 dwarfed or undeveloped condition. The largest of them scarcely exceeds 

 a foot in length, and they still retain their immature or parr markings. 

 The majority of them have nevertheless manifested a tendency to 

 propagate, and from the entire series a number of ova little short of 

 4,000 have been artificially expressed and fertilised, i should rejoice 

 to be able to congratulate the colony upon having in this most auspicious 

 anniversary of Her Majesty's reign, and after many years of indefatigable 

 and self-denying perseverance on the part of that very worthy body of 

 gentlemen, the late Salmon Commissioners, succeeded in establishing in 

 Tasmania a race of this noble fish that would propagate and grow to 

 maturity in its lakes and rivers without requiring to migrate to salt 

 water, and which race might be most appropriately distinguished by the 

 title 2X17^ excellence oi the "jubilee salmon." I fear, however, that the 

 prospects of the achievement are not altogether encouraging. With the 

 view of assisting, as far as possible, towards the successful conduct of 

 the experiments that might be continued, he submitted the following 

 suggestions : — In the first place, it is desirable that more than ordinary 

 care should be exercised in the manipulation of these valuable fish for 

 artificial propagation. During the Conferences at the International 

 Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883, at which I had the privilege of 

 being present, one of, the most important papers contributed was that 

 by Professor Huxley on " Fish Diseases." In this paper the fatal 

 malady caused by, or associated with the fungus, Saprolerjnia ferax, 

 was specially dealt with, and in the discussion that followed many new 



