162 
THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
streams, their waters are bright, clear, cold, and rapid, and 
they are stated by Mr. Bredt, the engineer to the shire of 
Bairnsdale, to be free from all enemies to the young salmon. 
One thousand salmon fry were sent to the Hopkins 
river near Warrnambool, by sea, and were taken there by 
Mr. Hickling. In his report he says : — “ I got down with 
the fish very successfully, and liberated them in excellent 
condition in the Oudgee Creek. I am sure they will do 
well, as the temperature (on 27th December) was only 
57 deg,, and — dry as it is — there is now a splendid stream 
of the purest water. The temperature of the Hopkins 
was 61 deg. — no doubt cooler in the shady pools and 
shallows — but this was after the great heat of Saturday ; 
however, the fish did not appear to be at all inconvenienced 
by the change from the cool tank to the warmer river. I 
am confident they will be heard of again.” 
In distributing the young salmon it was not found con- 
venient to delay the fish so as to count carefully the large 
number sent off at once — in one case eight thousand ; but 
the number was estimated approximately by counting out 
one hundred into a bucket, and afterwards netting about 
the same number as near as could be guessed, and noting 
the number of hundreds put in the cans. The later lots, 
being smaller in number, were counted with care, and, 
when all were counted, a very considerable loss was found 
to have unaccountably taken place, but it was found that 
lizards and snakes had made their way into one of the 
hatching boxes, and no doubt they had devoured many of 
the alevins. One snake was caught inside of the cover of 
wire netting put over the hatching-race, and killed, and a 
lizard was found with a galaocias five inches long, which it 
had dragged out of the water, and which was still alive. 
An objection has been made to my dividing the salmon 
into different lots, as it is supposed that they would have 
