a ee oe ERIT eer AAA ee ee 
Arraur.—On the Brown Trout introduced into Otago, 275 
from 11b. to 10Ibs. in four years, I found, says he, that one of the trout I 
had fed and weighed regularly for the last six years was not improving in 
size and colour. I therefore killed it. The fish is a female and weighed 
exactly seven pounds. The accompanying schedule will show its gradual 
increase :— 
Date of weighing .. .. 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 
Ib.oz.  lb.oz.  lb.oz. Ib. oz. Ib. oz. Ib, oz, 
April 1st. 0 12 1 12 34 5 4 10 7 4 
October is. .. .. 1 4 2 0 5 0 5 12 1 9 T. 9 
Littlecot, October, 1840." This latter experiment shows, under careful 
artificial feeding, that trout are capable in England of a growth, according 
to this gentleman, of 12 lbs. yearly to 23lbs. when they have reached their 
full growth. But trout, in a state of nature, as described by Stoddart, may 
more properly be eompared with the results I have given of our Otago 
trout. “Stoddart’s remarks therefore amount to this, that under the most 
favourable circumstances at home, river trout will attain up to maturity, a 
yearly average increase in weight of Hb., while our experience here shows 
they have reached an average yearly increase of from 11b to 23Ibs! In no 
river of Otago have these fish grown so rapidly, are so fat, or have become 
so heavy as in the Shag, some individuals having been seen in Mr. Rich's 
property supposed to be 20lbs in weight. They abound from the estuary to 
the “second gorge,” a distance I should think of 15 miles by the river, 
The banks of the Shag are partly cultivated and partly covered with native 
grass and flax. Surface food cannot therefore be plentiful, but at all 
seasons there are in the pools and shallows numbers of Galaxias or native 
minnows, bullheads, and during summer immense shoals of smelts and 
silverfish.* On one occasion I killed a trout below Palmerston, 6}Ibs. 
weight, in the stomach of which I found about three dozen smelts. It is 
rather against the trout, that during summer the Shag River runs low and 
clear, so low as to be easily erossed in the fords with watertight boots 
without the feet getting wet. The growth of trout in the Leith may also 
be attributed chiefly to the great numbers of smelt which frequent its lower 
waters. But it is different witM the Lee, Deep Stream, and Upper Taieri 
rivers, where the great staple of food is made up of flies, gnats, grass- 
hoppers, cadis-bait, fresh-water shell-fish, beetles and cray-fish—the small 
kinds of native fish are not very numerous in these streams. Before 
leaving this part of my subject, I may mention a curious circumstance 
regarding the Lee Stream which anglers have discovered. Painfully lean 
trout have been caught there, which took the fly or grasshopper greedily 
* This fish is called Silverfish by Mr. Powell, but Smelt (Retropinna richardsoni) 
by Dr. d fe Oe a called ee 
whitebait, 
also known 
