VERY LIKE A SELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1218, 3 April 1875, Page 14

VERY LIKE A SELL.

If Mr .Rutherford, of Geelong, is a reliable authority, the Tasmanians have been sold in the matter of salmon ova. The Evening Times says :—": — " Mr Rutherford haß returned from his trip, but with no salmon. He visited the breeding ponds at New Norfolk, and found thero has been a mistake made in importing ova of the bull trout instead of, as was supposed, brown trout. He found he could catch none of the fish with the fly, to which brown trout always rise. Baiting his line with grasshopper, he took ono of the fish about 18 to 20in long, and at once ascertained that it was a bull trout, a species which in Scotland they give 5s reward for every head produced Splitting the fish Avith a knife from end to end, he found the flesh to be pure white, whereas if it had bten a brown trout it would have been pinkish. The bull trout is a very voracious fish, and very destructive to young salmon, and these fish have been turned oub of the pond and thriven greatly. Prior to the turning out of the young salmon, Mr Rutherford concludes that the bull trout destroyed them all, aud tnat, consequently, it is vain to look for any grown salmon from all the efforts that have been hitherto made. Mr .Rutherford inspected the preserved fish at Hobart Town pronounced scientifically to be a real salmon, but he avers most positively it is what is called a salmon peeler, that is, an overgrown salmon trout, which must have escaped from somewhere. Some fine salmon trout are being reared at Port Arthur. Ther^are some true brown trout at LauncestonKut those reared at the New Norfolk Pond Pare the voracious bull trout, which have marred all the efforts yet made. The commissioners are tolerably well satisfied that Mr I»uth»-r-ford's view of the matter ib correct, and that they will adopt his suggestion of importing some fresh salcnon ova, and placing it inthe Mersey and, some others of the WeiJrem rivers free from its imported enemy, the bull trout."