P.—No. 2

PAPEES RELATIVE TO THE INTRODUCTION

18

This portion of the Derwent in which the salmon have been thus observed to such advantage, and where they had evidently congregated in considerable numbers, consists of a reach of deep still water four or five hundred yards in length, bounded at each extremity by a rapid which at the lower end passes over a fine bed of gravel, likely, in Air. Ramsbottom's opinion, to be selected by tho salmon as a suitable place for forming their nests and depositing their ova, and is in close proximity to the mouth of the Plenty (their parent home), into which there was every reason to expect that some of them would enter for the purpose of shedding their spawn. The progress of the salmon has thus been clearly traced from New Norfolk to the mouth of the Plenty, —a space following the course of the Derwent of upwards of eight miles in length. But the instances above related by no means embrace all the occasions on which the salmon have been seen in the river. The fish do not appear to have passed up the stream in one body; for, after their appearance in the Derwent at the various points above indicated, they have been seen at several places between the Plenty and New Norfolk, showing that they did not travel in one body, but by detachments, or in a continuous stream. Near a place called " Bell's Terrace," close to New Norfolk, where a fine gravel bed exists, the fish were seen on various occasions by more than one observer* long after their appearance near the Plenty. The last known occasion on which the salmon have been observed occurreel on Sunday, the 21st April, when two were seen to leap from the water in a very distinct and striking manner by the same Commissioner to whom they had before exhibited themselves in so satisfactory a manner, near the mouth of the Plenty, and by another gentlemanf at precisely the same spot where they had first been noticed on their return from the salt water. Soon after the date last mentioned the winter season set in, and the Derwent became considerably flooded, in which condition it has since more or less continued, thus precluding all hope of any of tho fish being seen in these waters without capture. The salmon have shown no disposition to enter the Plenty for the purpose of finding a spawning ground, but have preferred to remain in the larger stream of the Derwent, towards the sources of which, as in European rivers, they have probably proceeded in search of a suitable locality as the birthplace of their young. Had some of the fish, as expected, entered the Plenty, their capture would have been easy, and the Commissioners would thus have been enabled, in accordance with their anxious desire, to have added the proof of handling to that of seeing. They believe, however, that the evidence of the return of the salmon as above recorded is complete and irrefragable, and must soon be confirmed by their actual capture, for which the Commissioners have been furnished with all necessary appliances. If the opinion that a portion of the first body of smolts that proceed to the sea return as grilse within a period of from two to four months from the date of their departure be correct, it follows that some of the fish now in the Derwent have already twice visited the sea, and that those seen in the river during the past seven months comprised both grilse and salmon. And if a part of the young smolts that set out on their second journey in October, 1865, thus returned during the summer and autumn of 1866, they must also have spawned during the winter of that year, and their young must now be in the Derwent in the shape of parr, ready in a month hence to assume the character of smolts, and in their turn to seek a temporary sojourn in the salt water. But, even if this view should be incorrect, and all the young fish should have remained in the salt water for sixteen months, instead of from two to four months, there can be no doubt that a large number of ova have been deposited in the present season soon to become living fish, and adtl many thousands to the family now occupying the river. When the Commissioners shall have been enabled to introduce the salmon into some of the smaller rivers of the Colony, such as the South Esk, the Mersey, and many others, they will have no difficulty in ascertaining with accuracy the exact period of the stay of these fish in the salt w r ater, thus solving a question which has long been, and still is, a subject of contention among pisciculturists. The Commissioners believe that there are few rivers approaching the size of the Derwent where so small a number of enemies dangerous to the life of the young salmon are to be found. Eels, and the small fish locally called mullet, which seldom attain a weight of more than half a pound, with some predaceous birds, are the only foes against which they will have to contend in the fresh waters of that stream. With respect to the mullet, it is a singular and perhaps fortunate fact that, although they had previously been abundant in all parts of the Derwent above the influence of the tide, in the year 1865 they almost totally disappeared from the river and its tributaries. In that year the Commissioners reported that a disease of an epidemic character had appeared in the ponds, by which from fifty to sixty young salmon and a few of the trout were carried off, and that a great number of tho native mullet had at the same time perished apparently from the same cause. It was afterwards discovered that this malady had operated so severely on the native fish that the mullet had almost entirely disappeared from the river, and a few stragglers of small size could alone be be seen. More lately they have shown some signs of recovery and increase, but they are still comparatively few in number and of small size, and cannot be dangerous to the young salmon, of which they are more likely to be the prey. The Derwent from New Norfolk, a short way below which the water begins to be brackish to Hobart Town, where it is quite salt, including the numerous intervening bays, so teams with the fry of various kinds of fish, greatly increased since the passing of the Salmon Act, that a vast number of salmon would find abundance of suitable food without proceeding further to sea. Below Hobart Town to the mouth of the river in Storm Bay, such is the expanse of water abounding w 7 ith the young of an infinite variety of fish, that it seems improbable that the salmon will ever have occasion to pass into and incur the dangers of the open ocean, unless prompted by some other motive than mere hunger. During the past year an incident occurred in the history of our young salmon which excited considerable interest both here and in England. A fine smolt was captured by a young gentlemanj while fishing for the small native fish in the New Town Creek near the Orphan School, and was with much judgment transmitted to one of the with a statement of the facts attending

* Mr. and Mrs. Shoobridge and others. + Major Lloyd. J Master H. V. Bayley. § Mr. M. Allport.