148 
THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
Messrs. Fishbourne and Morton and Messrs. Noonan, 
with great generosity, not only carried the salmon and a 
large party over their own line, but Messrs. Noonan’s 
engine went also all the way to Sale over the Government 
line, free of any charge to either myself or the Government. 
I arranged with Messrs. Robertson and Wagner, to 
send an express waggon to carry the fish cans over the 
four miles of a gap, between the ends of the completed 
railway lines, and also to convey the salmon from Sale to 
Bairnsdale. 
The conveyance of the salmon beyond this place — which 
is the furthest point to which Cobb’s coaches run — I left 
to be arranged by the Bairnsdale Shire Council. However, 
the day before that fixed for starting, I had a telegram 
from the secretary to the shire, to the effect that it was 
“impossible” to take the salmon by the route I had 
indicated, and advising me to go by steamer. 
I decided, however, to endeavour to carry out my 
original plan, and accordingly, on Thursday last, at a 
quarter past five p.m., I left Ercildoune with about 2,700 
salmon fry, all of which were intended for distribution in 
the Gippsland rivers, except a small number left at 
Meredith in passing, which were successfully placed in the 
Moorabool River, by the president of the shire of Meredith 
and Mr. Corker. 
Soon after leaving Burrumbeet, I noticed that the fry 
showed symptoms of being sickly, by turning on their 
sides, and notwithstanding every care it soon became 
evident that a serious loss would occur. At Lai Lai I 
partially changed the water in one can, which seemed 
to be the worst, but could not see any improvement, and 
a number of them were evidently dying, and my project 
to take a proportion of the fish to the Snowy River, 
seemed little likely to be realised. "Wdth every care and 
