OF THE SALMONIBJ^. 37 



their progeny would be numerous enough 

 to stock even a single river in Tasmania, 

 while Australia and New Zealand had still 

 less prospect of seeing any immediate 

 return for their contribution to the accli- 

 matisation fund. 



The colonists had now two thousand 

 young salmon somewhere in the vast ex- 

 panse of Tasmanian waters ; and if they 

 might reasonably hope that some of these, 

 even a single pair, would survive to re-enter 

 one of their rivers as grilse, there could be 

 no certainty of this. We know that every 

 year young salmon and salmon-trout stray 

 from streams far away to the mouth of the 

 Thames, and vainly seek to enter its pol- 

 luted waters, in order to stock its long since 

 untenanted and no longer " silver " streams 

 with their beautiful progeny; but we also 

 know that they find all round our coasts 

 the Crustacea, sand eels, and small fry in 

 which they deKght ; for they have been 

 with us ever since the prehistoric cave 

 dwellers speared them in the river Vezere, 

 and left them among the debris of their 



