186 Transactions.— Zoology. 
about three years and a half ago, and were turned ont in a stream about 
ten miles from Wanganui. The consignment consisted of 800, and 
they were procured from Mr. A. W. Johnson of Opawa. I have been 
informed by credible witnesses that they have seen specimens of good- 
sized fish in this stream. We have had since then about 3,000 young 
trout partly from Johnson and partly from the Christchurch Acclimatization 
Society. Our first hatching of any number took place last year, from the 
4000 ova you were good enough to send, and 100 sent by Johnson asa 
sample. The water used for the purpose is not very good, but I succeeded 
in hatching out about 3600, which after they had lost their egg-sac were 
turned into the various streams of the district. What we consider our 
most valuable work, however, was the introduction of salmon into the 
Wanganui river. This river is a perfect paradise for salmon. When you 
get a few miles up, it flows over long shingly beds, interspersed here and 
there with deep, dark pools. In some places the water is not much more 
than three to four feet deep on the gravel beds, and in other places there 
are rapids, forming at their base the turbulent rocky water in which salmon 
delight. The only other fish except eels in this river, is the opokaroro, or 
native grayling. I was very anxious to get this river stocked, and when 
the last lot of ova arrived from San Francisco, about two and a half years 
ago, a portion of them were sent to Mr. Johnson’s establishment to be 
hatched out. From him I got 8000 young fish, but to my intense disgust 
the weather came on hot and muggy, a great portion of them died, and the 
rest had to be turned out in Wellington to save their lives. This was dis- 
heartening, but I would not give up, but got another consignment of 3500. 
These luckily arrived in fair order; I had canoes with Maori crews ready, 
blankets well watered, rigged up over the cans, and we took them straight 
off the ship forty miles up the river.” 
“ Another valuable consignment we had about three years ago, consisted 
of fifty dozen of perch from Ballarat. After being taken from the lake 
there, they were acclimatized for some time in the Yan Yean, at Melbourne. 
They were then put into canvas bags filled with water, and slung on 
frames on board ship. These arrived in capital order, but a few were lost 
by a bag bursting, and a fewI believe were stolen. With a second consign- 
ment we were not so successful, only about half arriving in fair order. 
These fish have been used to stock the lakes in the district. We have not 
interfered with them at all, although the first lot were turned out some 
three years ago; as we thought it best to give them ample time to reproduce 
their species. Our fish experiments having been so recent, we are not in @ 
position to give much reliable information ; but we know that both salmon 
