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Show 1870.] INTRODUCTION OF SALMON INTO TASMANIA. 29 that at any rate it would not be difficult to hook a fish, even if it could not be landed ; but it must be remembered that the fish to be caught were yet few in number, and that small indigenous fish swarm in myriads, furnishing such a supply of food that no bait will be likely to tempt the Salmon till this profusion is somewhat thinned. It is possible that Grilse or Salmon might have been taken in the tidal waters between Hobart Town and New Norfolk, a great part of which has been and could be worked with seine nets; but the local fishermen had so denuded the river of indigenous species of fair size by excessive netting at all seasons, that they had been for several years compelled to use nets of so small a mesh that even a Smolt could not pass through; and rather than run the risk of sacrificing the whole experiment by the destruction of any of the small consignments of Smolts sent seaward, the Commissioners exercised the power given them by the Legislature, and closed the river above Hobart Town altogether from the time the first batch of Smolts entered the brackish water. All attempts to take fish having failed, when the first rains of winter came on and the fish proceeded further up the river, the Commissioners came to the conclusion that the first undeniable proof they should now get of the success of the experiment would be the capture of Parr or Smolts in the coming spring, as such Parr or Smolts could only be the progeny of fish returned from sea, the last of the Smolts from the transported ova having left the ponds in the spring of 1868 and being therefore either dead or approaching grilsehood. In June 1869 the Trout again commenced spawning in their rill; and towards the end of the same month five pairs of the Salmon'- trout (Salmo trutta) formed rids on the shallows attached to their pool, which shallows are now, in October, alive with their fry. The success of this portion of the experiment may therefore be considered as complete as that of the Trout (S. fario), as a noble river, the Huon, has been purposely left unstocked, with the intention of turning into it all the Salmon-trout fry except those retained for a breeding-stock. About the middle of October 1869 a strong freshet came down the Derwent, the result of heavy rains at its sources; and on the night of the 21st of October four fishermen were hauling their seine on a sea-beach about two miles below Hobart Town, and on the opposite side of the estuary of the Derwent. At one of the hauls almost the only fish in the net was a well-grown healthy Salmon-smolt over 10 inches in length, and which, though taken in water as salt as the ocean, had but lately left fresh water; for the silverv scales rubbed off at the slightest touch, showing the colouring of the parr beneath. Half an hour later, and on a beach a mile nearer the town, a second Smolt, not quite so large as the first, was captured. The seine net used was a large-meshed one of an inch from knot to knot, which accounts not only for the capture of a single Smolt at each haul, though they are usually gregarious, but also for the unusual size of the specimens; the probability is that the net had in each instance surrounded a school, but that the ordinary- sized fish had easily passed through, while these two, larger |
