186 Transactions. — Zoology, 



about three years and a half ago, and were turned out in a stream about 

 ten miles from Wanganui. The consignment consisted of 300, 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 as a 

 sample. The water used for the purpose is not very good, but 1 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 o-pokaroro, 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 3000 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 fah" 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 few I 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 a 

 position to give much reliable information ; but we know that both salmon 



