FISH AND FISHERIES. 155 
_ The acclimatization of fish has not been carried out to a large extent 
in New South Wales. The river trout’ (Salmo fario) has been 
introduced with undoubted success into the rivers of Tasmania and 
Victoria, and into some of those of New South Wales. Shipments 
of salmon ova were made to Australia and Tasmania in 1849, 1852, 
1860 and 1862, but none reached the colonies alive. After many 
experiments by Mr. Buckland as to the vitality of salmon ova when 
frozen for over 100 days, a shipment was sent away. In April, 1864, 
the first salmon ova (Salmo salar) arrived in Tasmania, and with them 
a few ova of the common trout, no salmon-trout being ‘included in that 
shipment. In the spring of 1865 a number of smolts, estimated at 
about 1,500, went to sea. They bad been very successfully hatched, 
and the loss was not great.considering the enormous distance the ova 
had been brought. The packing was under the able superintendence 
of the late Mr. F. Buckland, and Mr. J. A. Youl, an old colonist 
residing in London,* and the whole success of the experiment was 
mainly due to the late Mr. Morton Allport, whose untimely death 
(September 10th, 1878) has been an incalculable loss to every depart- 
ment of science in Tasmania. In the same year that the smolts went 
to sea in Tasmania (1865) about thirty common trout were liberated in 
the river Plenty, and about 150 were retained in the breeding pond. 
In the following spring of 1866 the remainder of the salmon smolts 
from the first shipment, about 1,000 in number, took their departure 
for the ocean. , Several grilse of 5 lbs. weight were reported sub- 
sequently in the fresh waters of the river Derwent. 
In May, 1866, a second shipment of salmon ova arrived, and with 
them a number of salmon-trout ova. From this shipment, as far as 
regards the salmon, the hatching was very successful, and some 6,000 
smolts were liberated in 1867 and 1868. The salmon-trout ova were 
not so successful. Only 496 were hatched, and of these more than 100 
died before they reached the smolt stage. Of the survivors, 100 were 
permanently retained in a breeding pond, so that something less than 
300 salmon-trout were liberated, while 8,500 salmon were sent forth. 
In October, 1869, two salmonoids were caught, one of which Dr. 
Giinther pronounced to be a salmon-trout. In December, a third was 
caught which was more developed, having been six weeks longer in 
salt water. This was pronounced by Dr. Gtinther to be a true salmon. 
‘Since 1869 the number and size of the salmon captured have steadily 
increased. The late Governor, Sir Frederick Weld, frequently 
captured specimens of over 10 lbs, weight. It is still maintained by a 
few sceptical individuals that the fish caught are salmon-trout, and not 
salmon, but as the habits of the two migratory species, (Salmo salar 
and Salmo trutta) are similar, as they inhabit the same rivers and 
coasts, one species was just as likely to succeed as another in Tasmania. 
However, as about 8,500 salmon have been liberated to about 
300 salmon-trout, and of the salmon 2,500 have had two years’ start of 
the salmon-trout, it is manifest that the large fish captured are more 
likely to be true salmon, and that the experiment as far as Tasmania is 
concerned is a complete success. Already they afford excellent fishing, 
and at the falls and weirs on the Derwent the number of the fish making 
* The boxes of ova were buried inice sent for commercjal purposes. The ova 
were in boxes as before described. 
