■178 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Fishing has not been much practised in the Upper Taieri, owing to its 

 inaccessibility, so the progress or falling off in its stock of trout cannot well 

 be compared with what it was previous to 1878. At the same time both 

 large and small fish have been seen about Patearoa, which is ten miles below 

 where any were liberated. These were in considerable numbers and in 

 weight from 1 lb. to 10 lbs. Also the numbers and weight through the Ser- 

 pentine Flat keep up well. But the Lee and Deep Streams have been 

 regularly fished, untill 1882-3, when they were nearly forsaken by anglers, 

 owing to the lamentable decrease in the number of fish and the consequently 

 poor fishing. Now these streams are to a great extent alpine and rock- 

 bound, and the water of the Deep Stream is greatly affected by snow water 

 till the end of November, so that they cannot contain a very great food 

 supply, so far as bottom feeding goes, while the surface food has diminished 

 to an extraordinary extent by the almost total disappearance of the pre- 

 viously innumerable hosts of grasshoppers. The bottom food of these two 

 streams consists mainly of larva?, fresh water whelks (Limncea) and crayfish, 

 and the great numbers of these which must have been devoured by the trout, 

 during the first few years after these waters were stocked with trout, must 

 inevitably have reduced the breeding numbers on which the succeeding food 

 supply depended. The disappearance of the grasshoppers may be the result 

 of grass fires and the presence of starlings, but there is no great certainty 

 about the matter, as grass fires were just as common before as after angling 

 commenced, and I have never seen starlings feeding among the native 

 grasses. There are other causes in operation which I believe have had their 

 effect too. Neither stream seems to contain good breeding ground, although 

 there is plenty of gravel in their upper waters, and the local Society has 

 made a mistake in turning out the thousands of young trout too small and 

 helpless (half inch to three quarters in length). It was only last summer 

 that Mr. Deans, watching a number of these baby trout he had just put into 

 a stream in the Oamaru District, actually saw the native bullies seize and 

 eat or rather swallow some of them ! The first trout ever liberated in these 

 streams were strong and well-grown, from two to three mches long, and 

 they as we know thrived admirably, as in six years they became numerous 

 and had attained a weight in some individuals of 5 and 6 lbs. Pollutions 

 from gold-mining have occasionally spoiled the angling, and probably the 

 hatching of the ova too. Then we have shags or cormorants haunting the 

 Lee and Deep Streams, as well as almost all our other waters. These birds 

 live solely on fish, and as the two streams I am at present referring to have 

 few native fish, and no migratory smelts at all, the wholesale destruction of 

 trout up to a pound in weight is a sad certainty. I have never myself con- 

 victed any of these villains from positive proof, unless on one occasion, when 



