230 Salmon at the Antipodes. 



river; and after doing justice to our dinner, 

 we retired to very comfortable quarters, with 

 the understanding that we should start at the 

 first peep of dawn. 



" Early as I was next morning, I found Mr. 

 Howitt and Charlton before me at the river, 

 in the grey dawn. They had examined the 

 fish, and were just returning to tell me that 

 they were as lively as possible, except two 

 tbat had got pinned against the zinc by the 

 force of the current, and which were suf- 

 focated. I had been very anxious during the 

 night, as I did not anticipate these high tem- 

 peratures, and I kept waking up, thinking of 

 the salmon. The test was a very severe one. 

 These fish had never before experienced higher 

 temperatures than 60 deg. to 62 deg., and 

 were out of iced water at 55 deg., besides being 

 very young and tender. Should any large 

 portion of them be found to have perished 

 from the heat, it would be of little use, I 

 thought, going further, and the experiment 

 must fail. The news brought by Charlton set 

 my fears at rest ; success now seemed certain, 

 and soon we were on our road to the Buchan, 

 the nearest tributary of the Snowy river. 



