OF THE SALMONWM. 81 



progeny. We know that eleven years 

 elapsed before a small river in Scotland was 

 stocked with a newly introduced species, in 

 spite of the facilities afforded by proximity 

 to spawning grounds and a yearly supply of 

 young fish, and it could not be anticipated 

 that positive proof of the acclimatisation of 

 the strangers at the Antipodes would be 

 forthcoming in a year or two. Neverthe- 

 less, in October, 1869 and 1870, young 

 salmonids, about nine inches long, were 

 caught in the Derwent, and it is pretty clear 

 that they must have been fish born in the 

 river, and not the original smolts turned in 

 in 1865, but their progeny. Experienced ' 

 salmon fishermen had seen fish of many 

 pounds' weight "" leaping and swimming on 

 the surface far above falls which only a 

 powerful fish could surmount, and quite 

 impracticable for the small native species, 

 and declared them to be undoubted salmon. 

 In 1871 Sir Eobert Officer and others well \ 

 acquainted with the salmon at home saw, 

 when the river was in half flood, shoals of 

 large fish leaping and showing their glitter- 



7. 



