FOREST AND STREAM. 
© 
229 
The Introduction on the California Salmon into 
Australia. —Mr. H. R. Francis has just concluded, in the 
Field, a series of letters of undoubted merit, giving a most 
interesting account of Tasmanian pisciculture. The palm of 
antipodal fish culture must be awarded to New Zealand. 
Vhile New South Wales was talking about it, New Zea¬ 
land has successfully carried out all her plans. In regard to 
salmon, it struck us that our California fish, the Salmo 
quinnat would succeed far better in Australian waters than 
the Scotch fish. To transport the ova from California to 
jfew South Wales would present no possible difficulty. 
Writing to Professor Baird, we find that this question has 
been already anticipated bythe Fish Commissioner, as may 
be seen by the following interesting letter: 
United States Commission, Fish and Fisheries, 1 
Washington, D. C., May 5, 1874. j 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I have on various occasions, in articles written for Harper's Weekly 
and other journals, suggested the importation of the California salmon 
into Australia, in preference to the European variety, and I am under 
the impression that the same idea has occurred to our antipodal friends. 
If vou will refer to a copy of m-y Annual Record of Science and Industry 
for"l873, you will find one of the notices referred to, re-produced on page 
446. The saving of time and distance in the journey is a matter of 
prime importance, and I am inclined to believe that a Pacific Ocean sal¬ 
mon will be more likely to thrive permanently there than one that be- 
, longs to the waters of the Atlantic. Very truly yours, 
Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner. 
The reference made by Professor Baird in “Annual 
Record of Science,” is as follows: “Is it not a little remark¬ 
able that the gentlemen who have charge of the experiment 
of stocking the waters of Australia and New Zealand with 
salmon have not turned their attention to California, whose 
salmon are to be found much better fitted for the tempera¬ 
ture of Australia than the European species. The Austra¬ 
lian line of steamers from San Francisco could transport 
these eggs and deliver them in about thirty days, and with 
the almost absolute certainty of a successful result.” 
In reply to a question of the same character sent by us 
to Livingston Stone, Esq., that gentleman has sent us the 
following reply: 
United States Fish Commission, ) 
Charlestown, N. H., May 11, 1874. J 
Editor Forest and Stream: — 
Yours of May 4th is received. It has been my opinion for a long time 
" that che California salmon were better adapted to tbe Australian waters 
- thau the British salmon, and I have no doubt that the California salmon 
will be sometime introduced there. The trip by steamer is only thirty 
. lays from San Francisco, which gives a margin of several months over 
"the time required from Great Britain. Very truly yours, 
Livingston Stone. 
Shad in California. —We publish by permission of 
Prof. Baird an extract of a letter just received by him 
from Mr. S. R. Thockmorton, one of the indefatigable and 
onblie spirited Fish Commissioners of California. It will 
oe found exceedingly interesting, as it positively deter- 
i nines that shad are now found on the California coast, 
which is an additional triumph for the fish culturists: 
San Francisco, Cal., April 30,18747* 
Ion. Spencer F. Baird, JJ. S. Commissioner of Fisheries: 
Dear Sir— The first shad taken on this coast, as verified by my own 
" ibservation, was caught in a trap in Linsoon Bay, a branch of the harbor 
)f San Francisco, about the 1st day of April, 1873. I purchased the fish 
;,md placed it in alcohol and presented it to the Academy of Sciences of 
he State of California. It is a male fish, 1 year, 9 months and 20 days 
>ld, is seventeen (17) inches in length and three pounds in weight. Two 
• tther shad were taken in the same locality during the summer of 1873, 
• male fish and smaller in size. On 28th of March, 1874, three others were 
aken in the same trap, the largest a male fish three pounds and a half 
3|) in weight, and twenty inches in length, the other two much smaller, 
nd also male fish (as I am informed), for these last I did not see. On 
-riiat day (the 28th of March, 1874) our Legislature passed our bill forbid¬ 
ding the taking of shad for three (3) years from date, and consequently if 
•ny have been taken they have been so carefully concealed that we have 
o knowledge of them. I have been informed that during the winter 
: ust past two fish were taken in a small stream running into the ocean, 
. ome seventy miles north of this harbor, which were supposed to be 
had, but as I did not see them and have no acquaintance with those who 
re said to have seen them, I do not give it as a fact. Those shad I saw 
myself were very handsome shad, and my colleagues, Mr. Redding and 
Ir. Farwell, both of them as well acquainted as myself with the shad of 
e Chesapeake, the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers, considered them 
, ( xceedingly fine specimens. S. R. T. 
FISH CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 
:, North of England, May, 1874. 
iDIT0R Forest and Stream: — 
ji Being desirous to learn the mode of fish culture in the Mother Country 
, inquired where it could be seen, and could only hear of one establish 
jjjl ien °f the sort in all England. This is in Borrodale, a rugged and ro 
near Keswick,in Cumberland,which small town at the bas< 
j.;,. 'Kldaw, is considered the centre of the lake district. I had letter! 
A introduction to Mr. Gillbanks of Whitefield, alluded to in your pape: 
'h* I 6 ’ andthi ^ell known gentleman showed me every kindness 
e weather was.bitterly cold, so much so as to be painful. The “squire’ 
• e th* * ns * ste h on driving me to the fishery, about 15 miles off, ai 
j/ . 0u f ^ most of the fry would be coming out, which, would be a ven 
L 1 arf reStlU * ^ v* ®° yoking a magnificent chestnut horse to a light dog 
i/ the We anave< * afc Keswick, about ten miles ; in a very short time. An 
he h ' u 1C ^ 6 was P rocure< i here, and we set off without delay, skirting 
j ,;L aD . 8 ° f ^ eswic k Lake, or Derwent water. We had not time to gc 
' line' ° f Boiro ^ ale > knt stopped at the Bowder Stone, one of its 
1 in of^ featllre f' ^his enormous stone stands quite detached on th< 
|W . a " rass y hillock. It, is twenty yards long by about as much high 
b bft 8 0n a P°i nt Hke a top spinning; it is computed by engineer! 
rand 116 * 1 ' t0nS * n The whole scenery here is aw full] 
*1'' ansin» n ° rm0aS roc ^ 3 the most unearthly and fantastic forms 
oclea^f 0 ^ 16 ^ aS if read y t0 crush one every minute. The water is 
J 1 ' e . )t , r rut ming over gravel that a pin might be seen at an immense 
ifiount . ough spring was far advanced—April 20—several of tin 
|l ; gj. ain ® .h snow on their summits, and Scawfell, the highest Eng 
overed'” w ^ ,:l60 feet )> of which we had a good view, was entirely 
Blount ' . T10w timed back and walked up a sort of recess in the 
eat a l n , si< ^ e t0 fish-house. Mr. Tarnaby, the proprietor, was ab 
;; ifferj 1 1 8 ° WaS his as - istant i both taking away large orders of fryte 
r i; l!a t h P ar . ts °f the kingdom. We saw an enormous quantity of fisl 
i 8 ‘ ac 8 U li rCediQKtrOUghs ’ 80me a fevv days old, some with the umbilica: 
fsal attac ^ e< ^' Thera were abundance of young salmon, salmo trutta 
r6 mon trout; some great lake trout from Geneva, which get to be < 
laavrrf 1 ^ we * g ht in a year or two; some of our S.fontinahs,&mUi grea 
7 °l bDth sorts of 9 ) 44 ?, Til? ecofor of the Jins and unde; 
parts of the “red-belly” species exceeded in intensity any vermillion a 
painter could find. One fine specimen in a tank seemed about three lbs. 
weight, and was perfectly tame. I believe Mr. Tarnaby brought some of 
these beautiful fish over to America a year or two since, and took hack a 
good many black bass. He got several alive to Liverpool and some to 
the far end, where he thought he had got over all danger; to his great 
grief they died all at once. Chemists suppose from change of water. 
There is now a great change of weather. The heat is terrible in the day 
time, but cool at night. There is a wonderful show of fruit blossoms, 
which it is to be hoped will not be nipped by baneful frosts. There has 
been no crop of apples and pears in England for many seasons, and 
these fruits selling at same price as oysters, bringing three pence each. 
Though Mr. Tarnaby is a Yorkshire man, he learned fish hatching in 
Canada with his relative, Mr. Wilmot. I was glad to see onr Mr. L. 
Stone’s book on Trout, laying on a table at Whitefield. Mr. Gillbanks 
considers it the best book on the subject. With many thanks to the 
above gentlemen for what I saw and learned, Yours, 
Anglo-American. 
‘ —Only 860,000 young salmon are to "be put in the head 
waters of the Champlain this spring. Two million shad 
are going into the Connecticut at Beilows Falls. 
—A meeting of the committee appointed to undertake the 
restocking of the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers with 
fish, was held in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the 11th 
instant. There were present;—Hon. Frederick Smyth, the 
chairman, and Joseph Kidder, of Manchester; John M. 
Hill, of Concord; Dr. Edward Spalding, of Nashua; Gen. 
Natt. Head, of Hooksett; Hon. O. A. J. Yauglian, of 
Laconia; Martin A. Haynes, of Lake Village; and Dr. 
Fletcher, one of the Fish Commissioners. The following 
gentlemen were appointed a committee to draft a memorial 
to the legislature, giving their opinion of the feasibility of 
restocking the rivers with shad and salmon, the causes 
which have prevented success heretofore, and setting forth 
the instrumentalities now needed to accomplish the desired 
results;—John M. Hill, of Concord; Dr. Edward Spalding, 
of Nashua; Hon. A. H. Bellows, of Walpole; Judge Josiah 
Minot, of Concord. Adjourned to meet at Concord, on the 
second Wednesdav in June, at the rooms of the Board of 
Trade. The gratifying earnest of future success which we 
observe, not only in the matter of rehabilitating our barren 
and depleted streams, but in protecting and propagating 
game of all kinds, is in the fact that leading men of all the 
States are now coming forward with their wealth and in¬ 
fluence and personal efforts, and a unity of purpose not 
heretofore manifest, to secure their accomplishment. 
■\ For Forest and Stream. 
White Fish in Twin Lakes. —Four specimens of this 
line fish were speared (oh law !) last night, May 10th, and 
one of them (a present, be it understood) lies before me as 
I write. It is fourteen inches long, well fed and as silvery 
white and grey as any salmo of them all, with the little 
adipose fin which proclaims its near relationship to that 
family, and not a bass as our Cooperstown friends will per¬ 
sist in calling it. “Otsego bass ” forsooth ! A large number 
were seen by the spearsman, hut as he was only after 
suckers of from four to six pounds weight the white fish 
were looked upon as too small game for one who, “when 
he goes catting, goes catting.” Now, with these beautiful 
fish, and the million or less of salmon trout that the propri¬ 
etor of “ Twin Lakes Trout Farm” is getting ready to put 
in the lakes, with, perhaps, a few grayling for the cold 
streams that run into it, won’t the bright colors in which 
your correspondent “Piscator” paints our Waushineing 
continue to “ Wash ” as well as shinel 
J. Ives Pease. 
Note. —The maw of the fish was stuffed “choke full” of 
the larvse of the May fly, grubs from rushes, and mussels 
and a little gravel. 
—The Massachusetts Anglers’ Association, of Boston, 
have leased for five years new and commodious quarters in 
Baldwin’s building, corner of Washington and Essex streets. 
At its meeting last week, twelve new members were elected 
and fourteen propositions received. Attention was called 
to the fact that the lobstermen are in the liahit of throwing 
overboard, after their arrival at the wharves, all lobsters 
under 10£ inches in length, without removing the wooden 
plugs from their claws; and inasmuch as this forever pre¬ 
vents them from obtaining food the matter was referred to 
the Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, as the 
most summary method of dealing with the offenders. This 
Association is a most vigorous one, and the efforts it is mak¬ 
ing to correct abuses, punish offenses, and increase the fish 
protection for food and sport, are worthy of all emulation 
by other similar bodies. It is to the care and intelligence 
with which societies like this investigate the natural habits 
of the fish and the influences deleterious to their increase, 
that authority must look for the knowledge requisite for 
successful action. 
—Mr. N. W. Clark, the Michigan pisciculturist, states 
that, last November, he placed in the State hatching boxes 
1,800,000 whitefisli ova, of which all but about ten percent, 
hatched. Since March 23d, he has distributed a million 
and a half of young whitefish in 194 lakes and rivers in 
Michigan. 
—Sixteen fine salmon caught at Veazie, the lot weighing 
upwards of three hundred pounds, were sent to Boston 
from Bangor, last week. Two of the largest had in their 
fins a silver tag, placed there by the Bucksport Bi eeding 
Works when they were caught before. 
—During the dry weather of the past week several ex¬ 
ceedingly destructive fires have been raging in the woods 
of Suffolk county on both sides of the Long Island railroad. 
In the neighborhood of Deer Park 15,000 acres of timber 
were destroyed. Mr. August Belmont’s great stable con¬ 
taining 76 valuable horses narrowly escaped. Serious des¬ 
truction was also wrought by similar fires in Riverhead and 
in the.Islip pine woods. The total loss during the week is 
^ther ippselj estinmte4 at $1,000,000. 
ffaodlmd, tfawn mid (garden. 
SMALL ROCKWORK IN THE GARDEN. 
Your voiceless lips, O! flowers, are living preachers, 
Each cup a pulpit, every leaf a book, 
Supplying to my fancy ntimerous teachers 
From loneliest nook. 
Posthumous glories! angel-like collection! 
Upraised from seed or bnlb interred in earth, - 
Ye are to-me a type of resurrection 
And second birth. Horace Smith. 
N every suburban garden may be found some quiet 
nook, or some unappropriated location, sometimes a 
large boulder among the wild wood. These very often 
will be found of considerable extent, and though they are 
termed waste places they can be made very beautiful if 
skillfully handled by the landscape gardener, as they often 
admit of many additional features that under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances do not usually exist. 
In a large garden, with an abundance of water, the cre¬ 
ation of a beautiful and very striking grotto of rock work 
among the shade trees is very easy of execution, and may 
be made one of the chief attractions of the garden. Of 
the manner of constructing and arranging one of these 
grottoes I shall write in a future number of these papers, 
and in this confine myself to the arrangement and con¬ 
struction of a rockery adapted to a corner of the garden, 
or even a small centre-basin of rock work. Having erected 
in many small gardens, affording only a small supply 
of water, similar ornamental receptacles for the aquatic 
and lialf-aquatic plants, we think the information imparted, 
if followed carefully, will enable almost any one to make a 
picturesque and beautiful ornament to their garden. There¬ 
fore our lady readers will find in this paper a continuation 
of our last, with additional instructions for the arrange¬ 
ment of rock work and small water gardens. 
We will suppose you have in yo#r garden some fifty feet 
square of green sward, and perhaps in some one of the 
corners there grow some half dozen trees, evergreens, or 
half hardy trees. In this comparatively small space (it is 
all we have, and we will make the most of ft) we will first 
strike a circle in the centre, as heretofore instructed, of 
eight feet in diameter. From this you will now remove all 
the earth, and lay it aside for future use. Make your ex¬ 
cavation one foot and six inches deep, and carefully even 
the bottom, and if the bottom is loose pound it down well 
with a mallet, after placing two inches of clay over the 
same merely for the purpose of forming a pan. Now we 
suppose you have water—as is found in most cities—at¬ 
tached to your house. You will from a convenient place 
attach a half inch lead pipe to the house pipe, with stop 
cock attachment at a convenient place of access, and then 
bury the lead pipe say six to eight inches in depth, as 
you will use it only in the summer, and carry it into the 
centre of your excavation, turning the same upwards in a 
perpendicular manner as high as you design to have the top 
orifice. If you prefer you can have a flexible India rubber 
attachment, which you can affix , and remove at pleasure 
with equal good effect. I have thus arranged small foun¬ 
tains in gardens which were truly a source much delight. 
Having thus far followed our directions, you will now 
according to your means and appliances, commence your 
reservoir for holding the water necessary to maintain your 
aquatic plants. Your largest diameter being eight feet 
you will by means of small stones construct a circle of one 
foot width, between the walls running around the whole 
basin, and lay the same in hydraulic cement. This is for 
a circular flower pot, or receptacle to contain such plants 
as you desire, to give your rockery a prominence of green¬ 
ness and aquatic life. 
In your selection of stones and materials you will exer¬ 
cise your own taste. A fine effect is produced from the 
arrangment of quartz and jasper, feldspar and porphyry, 
and the amygdaloids found on the coast of Marblehead. 
You can also use mica stones, and, in short, consult your 
own resources, and you will scarcely fail in producing a 
fine and pleasing effect at a very trifling cost. 
The height of this circular basin, or receptacle for flow¬ 
ers, should rise say six inches above the level of the lawn 
only, and be made quite level on the outside, though it is 
not necessary to have it perfectly even. This leaves you 
an inner circle of some six feet and a half in which to raise 
your rock work, which you will make in the following 
manner: You will choose such rocks of large size as will give 
an uneven circular form, and place them around the inner 
circle, uniting their edges with cement, and raising them 
to a height of three feet. At this height you will com¬ 
mence your bottom basin or aquarium by filling up the in¬ 
side of your rockery with small rocks, and at the height of 
two and a half or three feet from the surface of tlie^lawn 
lay evenly a coating of cement two inches thick as a bot¬ 
tom for your aquarium, as we propose to erect one in this 
rockery. Having carefully laid your cement bottom, you 
will now raise your aquarium sides—one foot and a half 
will be as high as is desirable—cementing it all around if a 
rock aquarium. If one or two sides are to be open, which 
can easily he made at this stage, you will procure two 
squares of glass, of the size and kind used in aquariums 
and insert the same—one on each side, or three if you pre¬ 
fer them—within this rock basin, and you have a very fine 
aquarium and rock work united, the cost of which is very 
trifling compared with the care of constructing the same 
You will keep in mind that in one case you construct a 
basin upon your rock work—a simple basin covered with 
pebbles from the brook, into which you can place gold and 
silver fish with good effect—or an aquarium made bythe ad¬ 
dition of three squares of gj a g S? set equi-distant in this 
