44 THE ACCLIMATISATION 



and the quality of the water were con- 

 cerned, could not fail to be equally well 

 satisfied, and ascending fish began to be 

 eagerly looked for. Some of the descending 

 smolts, it is known, were captured in the 

 brackish water, and probably many others 

 besides were quietly "burked" by the 

 fishermen, who all along have endeavoured 

 to destroy evidence of the success of the 

 attempt to acclimatise the salmon, because 

 they were put under some restrictions 

 against scraping the river at all times and 

 seasons with their nets. They could not 

 apparently give up for a few days in the 

 year their systematic efforts to exterminate 

 the native fish, in order that they might 

 one day have a far greater source of profit 

 in the salmon; and a little judicious bribery 

 revealed an organised system of murder of 

 all strangers found in the river. 



The fertility of the imprisoned' salmon- 

 trout seems to have been exceptional, for 

 every one of the 142 ova sent to the Otago 

 Acclimatisation Society produced a fish. In 

 July, 1870, they were again busy spawning, 



