Oct. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



AND ACCLIMATISATION. 117 



natural proclivities. Thus, for example, it appears to me that, when 

 attempting to introduce young artificially hatched fish into a river, we 

 should place them in the smallest streamlets, where the fish would 

 themselves deposit their ova, and not in the wider parts of the stream, 

 where they are liable to injury from various causes. Again, the notion 

 of fishing the breeding fish out of a river, collecting their eggs, and arti- 

 ficially impregnating them, seems to me an unnatural mode of proceed- 

 ing, and such as is not practised in the cultivation of any other animal. 

 I cannot see any practical advantage that can possibly be derived from 

 it. For the replenishing of worn-out fisheries of oysters and pearl- 

 shells, all that seems necessary or advantageous to be done is to place 

 round the bed twigs and various similar substances, so arranged as to 

 retain the eggs when deposited, and to protect them by all the means in 

 our power, leaving the beds undisturbed for a sufficient time to allow 

 the new brood to become firmly established in them. Besides the 

 numerous attempts at home to replenish our rivers and oyster-beds, 

 much has been written, and large sums have been expended, in trying 

 to introduce salmon into the rivers of Australia ; but the many failures 

 show how little those who undertook the task were acquainted with the 

 most common physiological questions connected with the removal of 

 fish, and how small was their knowledge of the habits and peculiarities 

 of the fish which they proposed to remove. What, indeed, could be 

 more absurd than the attempt to introduce salmon into rivers which for 

 a considerable part of the year are reduced to a series of stagnant pools ? 

 I think I may venture to predict that if salmon are ever introduced into 

 Australia they are much more likely to succeed in the deep rapid rivers 

 of Tasmania than in the streams of Australia proper. At the same 

 time, when we consider the very limited geographical range of the 

 salmon in Europe, confined as it is to those rivers which have their exit 

 into the North Sea — that the attempt to remove it even from one river 

 to another in Europe has always been a failure — and that it is not only 

 necessary that the salmon should have a river similar to that which it 

 inhabits here, but also the same food and other peculiarities, without 

 which apparently it cannot subsist — I must confess that I have no great 

 faith in the success of the introduction of the salmon into Australia. I 

 think, therefore, that it is to be regretted that the Australian Acclima- 

 tisation Society do not rather make some experiments on the introduc- 

 tion of the gourami, or some of the other edible fish of countries nearer 

 to, and more resembling their own. 



