178 Transactions, — MisceUaneouhi 



distinct varieties, — the clear silvery breed in the lower reaches, where the 

 river is comparatively still, the water deep and the bottom sandy ; and the 

 golden breed in the upper waters, where the river tumbles over rocks, or 

 ripples over coarse stones and gravel. The fins vary in colour, the belly 

 fins are generally brown or olive, but sometimes of a golden tint, while oc- 

 casionally the ventral and anal fins have a white anterior margin. Similar 

 differences have been noticed in the trout of other waters, but I need not 

 enlarge further, neither shall I attempt now to account for the many varieties 

 of S. salar, S. trutta, and S.fario. 



I have referred above to the limits within which the three best-known 

 species of the genus Salmo are found. In connection with that I may 

 mention that some years ago I met a Lieutenant Houston, of the United 

 States Navy, who had been engaged on a surveying cruise along the coast of 

 South America. He informed me that on the west coast of Patagonia he 

 and his brother officers had caught and eaten trout. These were taken in a 

 small stream, which ran out of a lake 4,000 feet above sea-level, and flowed 

 into Smyth's Bay. While I do not question the good faith of this state- 

 ment, I suspect that the fish may have been a cliarr, and do not think it 

 could be the common trout, 5'. fario. 



Acclimatized Sahnonida. 



The introduction into New Zealand waters of different species of the 

 Salmonidfe from Great Britain, America, and Tasmania, which has been in 

 progress during the last twelve years, renders the identification of these 

 from one another a matter of some interest and importance. The circum- 

 stances of the culture of these fish in the colony are totally different from 

 what they are in an old country like Britain, where the fish are indigenous. 

 In England, Scotland, or Ireland the different species have their well-known 

 and defined localities and seasons, so that, as a rule, when an example or 

 specimen of a particular fish is wanted, it is known exactly where to go for 

 it. But here in New Zealand, and more particularly as regards Otago, I 

 find that, excepting the brown trout, we know as yet very little about the 

 whence or the whither of the migratory Salmonidte introduced from other 

 countries. Thus, I would observe, no correct record appears to have been 

 kept by which we can assert positively what English river contained the 

 progenitors of our salmon put into Jacob's river as fry in 1874, 1876, and 

 1878. That is to say, although Mr. Howard, of Wallacetown, has informed 

 me that the salmon ova came originally from the Tweed, Tyne, Kibble, 

 Hodder, Lune, Avon, and Dart rivers, yet who can now say from which of 

 these rivers the ova were taken which eventually hatched at the Wallace- 

 town ponds ? The Californian salmon introduced are supposed to be 

 S. quinnat. Nor have I been able to trace the origin in England of the 



