LAND AND WATER

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 43

LAND AND WATER

The difficulty which has attended past efforts to sreck New Zealai-d rivers with salmon has been that the fish on going to the sea never return. At Friday's meeting of the Acclimatisation Society the Rev. Mr Oliver threw out a suggestion which he thought would cope with the difficulty. He proposed that the trout and the salmon should be crossed. The fiist croas made a capital fish in itself, ho held — superior to the trout and very little inferior to the salmon. That cross again should be crossed with a pure salmon, and so on, until after four or five crosses the pure salmon was obtained. The advantage of this would be that the salmon would in all probability inherit some of the habits of the trout in coming back to the livers again after going down to the sea. The chairman requested that Mr Olher should bring up his suggestion again when the season arrived, when such an experiment could be made, and that gentleman promised to do so. Our (Oamaru Mail) Maerewhenua correspondent writes : — The other day a wellknown Duntroon resident was out rabbit shooting near the Waitaki in the vicinity of Duntroon. Passing near a backwater, he noticed an unusual commotion in the water, and on closer investigation, found it was caused by a large shag which seemed to be struggling- with something. The water being very shallow, the gentleman had a shot at the shag, but owing to the water, the shot did not take much effect, because the bird immediately rose and was making off, when a second shot brought it down. When it fell it disgorged a live eel 2ft 3in in length. The gentleman took the eel home and had it measured before several witnesses, who are quite willing to give their names if required. To fishers the above is interesting. Although in this case the shag was going to make a meal of the eel, it is well enough known that if trout are plentiful shags prefer them to all other fish. I have known an instance in which more than a score of small trout were found in the stomach of a shag, whioh is sufficient to show how much

] ham is done by these robbers of our trout' streams. Every fisher knows that tho s!:ag is one of tho greatest enemies tLo trout has to contend with, and if the Acclimatisation Society offered-a free license to all tho£e who destroyed a certain number of shag!;, say, half a dozen, in the season, it might he the , means of ridding the rivers of tin's cepredator. SIZE AND AYEIGIIT OF NEW ZEALAND RED DEER. (Field.) I Sir, — The following measurements and ( weights of red deer killed last April in Ot.isfo. Mew Zealand, may interest some of jour readers.

' Two of the abovo stags, a 10-pointer and an 11-pointer, weighed respectively 18st 111b and 22st lib. These stags were in fair condition only, as the rutting season had already commenced. They were weij>hed clean, without heart, liver, etc. F. W. Belt. Adelaide.

[Length Iron Ko. of tip of nope Poiatp. to end of I tail. !H>ieht from Withers. Girth Behind .Shoulder. —— 9 9 10 11 11 ]] 12 75 inches Si „ 84J „ SI „ 80 A „ 91 „ 43 inches 45 „ 45 „ 50 „ 52 inches 52 52 „ j 03 „