HOW THE SALMON FOUND HIS WAY TO AUSTRALIA.
THERE used to be " merchant-princes ;" there are still squatter-princes. Among the number, Sir Samuel Wilson, who went out when a boy from the County Down, in Ireland, anal settled in Victoria, is conspicuous for public spirit, in- telligence, and generosity. He it was who gave £30,000
for the building of a Hall for the Melbourne University, and he it is to whom the colony of Victoria owes the intro- ditetion of the salmon, with ell the train of economic poten- tialities implied by that great and difficult achievement. To his favourite project for the benefit of his adopted country, the stocking of its rivers with fish, especially with salmon, Sir Samuel Wilson has devoted great -care, study, and effort ; on it he has expended much money, and at length, after enough of failure to have disheartened any less persevering person, he has succeeded in placing salmon-fry in all the Victorian streams of any note. The success of this ex- periment will he watched with the attention that the mag- nitude of the interests concerned in it merits ; the manner of it, with the adventures it involved, and the patient ingenuity it demanded, gives the Australian salmon quite an -anticipatory " Arabian Nights' " flavour. Well might they, when. situ- meriag in the fish-kettles, or flopping in the frying-pane of the future, lift their inquisitive noses, and ask how they came there,—of the dwellers by -the Glenelg, the Gellibrand, the Werribee, the Latrobe, the Mitchell, the Yam, and ever so many other rivers, which, from " Creation's Dawn " till now, knew not of the king of fishes and his princely kin. The -earliest immigrants-100,000 salmon and 3,000 trout-ova--went out, packed in moss and charcoal, in 200 boxes, on board the Norfolk,' in 1864, and all the trout now in Australia and New Zealand are the descendants of the fish batched from the 3,000 ova which were a present from Mr. Buckland to Mr. Youl, CALG., who have both devoted simply unlimited eeal, 'labour, and care to the problem. Mr. Youl himself obtained the salmon- ova, and the distinguished strangers of both kinds were consigned to the Victorian ,Government, represented by the Acclimatisation 'Society, and to the Tasmanian Government, represented by the " Salniou Commissioners." They made their voyage of seventy- seven days, in an ice-house built to receive them, and sur- rounded with thirty-two tons of ice. The trout did well, though only a small number reached maturity, and spawned in the ponds of the River Meaty, whence they were distribute& over many rivers and streams ; but the salmon
failed then, and in some subsequent instances. ed in Victoria its acclimatisation was given up, for it was thought the tem- perature of the rivers was too high for the fish, for he is partial to slightly frozen waters in the winter. Eight years later, Sir Samuel Wilson, who had ascertained that the Californian salmon could bear heat better than the English, had -25,000 ova sent from San Franeiaco to Melbourne. But the supply of ice proved insufficient, the fish hatched out and perished, and all was lost for the time. In 1875, nothing daunted, he joined the New Zealand Government in a shipment of 20,000 ova from England, one-half to be for Victoria. Mr. Buckland and Mr. Youl again superintended the despatch of the interesting emigrants, lint again the heat destroyed the ova, and only five fish were hatched, these at Sir Samuel Wilson's own place, Eroildoune. The New Zealand moiety was more prosperous, owing to the lowtempeca- tore of the rivers. Again Sir Samuel Wilson resolved to im- port Californian salmon-ova,and to undertake the care- of them, personally, during their hatchingand distribution in the Victorian rivers ; and this task he has fulfilled, under conditions which make strange chapters in what may-well be called a " fairy-tale of science." The Californian variety is Salmo quinntat, or " the glittering salmon," a lustrous, lusty creature, amazingly prolific, and of very curious habits. There are three ascents of the rivers each year, and so far as has yet been ascertained,
the adult fish all die after spawning. They never eat after they leave the sea, and on their long journeys die of starvation. Here are two wonderful facts :—" In the McCloud river, the source of which is 3,500 feet above the sea, they have to ascend rapids for thirty miles. In the Snake River, the sources of which are eastward of the Great Salt Lake, the journey that they have to make to their spawning-grounds is about 1,000 miles." They have a somewhat ferocious look, caused by the expression of the eyes, and the presence in the jaws of enormous, pointed teeth, sometimes half-an-inch in length. As they never eat in fresh water, they are useless for purposes of sport, not to be tempted by the fly. The facts and figures respecting the " preserving industry " on the Pacific coast of the United States are bewildering in their magnitude; the economic value of such a food-product in the new habitat provided, for it is scarcely to be exaggerated..
ay. and w e hkon wow lwabboaitioaur se
the curious processes of pisciculture, From Mr. Buckland's amusingnarratives,
is the collection of fish-ova (a -"lady's wicker travel- ling basket for holding live salmon," and a diver's india- rubber dress, with wading-trousers for himself, are among the items of his paraphernalia) ; and Sir Samuel Wilson's history of the " liberation " of the artificially-hatched creatures from the Golden State in 1877, raises the whole subject iuto the -region of adventure. The ova had travelled, packed in an ice-chest, about two feet in depth, placed between two pieces of mosquito-net, 7,000 in each layer, with a cushion of moss between each two layers. Six inches of ice was placed over the eggs, and the bottom of the box was pierced with holes, to allow the escape of water from the melting-ice. The box had an inner lining, enclosing four inches of sawdust, to act as a non-con- ductor, and the ice was renewed every twelve hours on the voyage. This precious consignment•was opened at Ercildoune, the ova were transferred to the gravel of the hatching- boxes, and the next morning over -a hundred young salmon rewarded the anxious eyes which were watching to wel- come the little strangers. They were lively little fel- lows, even -at this stage of their existence. When touched with a feather, they would start off and swim round in a circle, and settle down again amongst the gravel. On the -remainder of the -ova being transferred to the hatching-boxes, numbers of young fish were found to have hatched during the night, and next day 600 made their appearance. So far, the experiment had succeeded ; after much disappointment, had come triumph. The stages through which these strange creatures pass must be quite !fascinating to observe, especially that at which the alevin, or new-born baby-salmon, emerges from the shell. When the eyes of the young fish become visible, through the horny outer shell, and the egg rolls about in the current passing over it, without apparent cause, then the emergence of the little salmon is near, and the observer may see the protrusion of the head, and note the adhesion of the shell to the sac for a while, until a last grand effort frees the young alevin, which lies panting with the exertion and the novelty of its -position, vigorously exercising the breathing apparatus in its gills. He does not look much more like a salmon at this period, !of his existence than a newly-born baby looks like a man ; he looks like a mass of pink gum, with a thin body, three-quarters of an inch long ; he has a shapeless head, and goggle-eyes. The pink-gum arrangement is a highly -convenient provision of nature ; it is a kind of self-supplying nose-bag, or reservoir of food, which the alevin lives on until it is absorbed. He is con- ecquently not at all troublesome during the earliest stage of his existence, but that stage does not last long, and it is succeeded by one in which he requires to be fed with sheep's liver, boiled, and grated on a nutmeg-grater, then rubbed into the consistency of cream with a little water, by the use of a table-knife on a board. This meat must be perfectly fresh, and should be ad- Ministered three or four times a day, each fish eating one- hundredth part of his own weight daily ; and the hatching-boxes .require to be sprinkled all over with a little earth every second slay ; so that, on the whole, the nursery business would seem to be no; sinecure. While they are yet alevins is the best time for the transportation of the young fish.; their next stage is that of the' smolt, when they put on their silvery coat, after which they have to become grilse, and then kelt, if they be females ; kipper, if they be males. The precautions taken on their journeys are' -manifold, and the methods of their carriage most ingenious ;! they must have plenty of air as well as water, the services Of ; bellows are iu constant requisition ; the great secret of success ! in transporting the live fish safely ie to keep the water at the same temperature as that to which they have been accustomed.' 'Tobacco-smoke will kill them infallibly, so that the " profane vulgar" must be carefully kept away from the dairy-like cans, with perforated lids, which form the travelling-tanks. Of course the travellers must have plenty of room ; and a supply of ice, packed in sawdust, to use on the journey, a bucket in which to wash the ice, a thermometer, and a small net to pour the water into when liberating the fifth, are among •the necessaries! 'of the undertaking. At the end. of 1877, Sir Samuel! Wilson successfully conveyed from Ercildouno, near Mel- bourne, to the Gellibrand River, the first lot of young -salmon ever liberated in those waters. He took four. Cane, each containing ten gallons of water and 2,000' fish, and started by rail for Geelong, he and his assistant -aerating the cans every fifteen minutes, by using a pair of bellows and a piece of india-rubber tube corked. at the end, and IgerSed with small holes, to bring the air which was forced into
the water in contact with as large a surface as -possible. At Geelong two cans were detached, and taken off to the Upper Yarra. On reaching the Barwon at Winohelsea, two hundred deli were given to the station-master, who started in the moon- light to put them in the river two hundred yards off. With the transfer of the remaining cans to a wheeled vehicle began the more serious difficulties of the undertaking, for the care of the fish could not be relaxed for a moment, and the road lay over steep ranges and through deep gullies, obstructed with fallen logs, ruts, and stumps. The party had to camp out during one long, anxious night, but in the morning, when their pioneers had cleared a track, they pushed on to the bank of the river, and examining the cans, found their young charges alive and well. A few hundreds were distributed among the shallows, which already swarmed with a native trout, of which,however, the princelings took no notice whatever, entering on possession of the clear, bright waters with fearless confidence ; and theu, after some hours of very heavy work through dense scrub, underneath the tall stems of the forest gums, the party reached the bank of the Gellibrand River, and Sir Samuel Wilson liberated his captives. The stream, twenty yards wide, was running with a clear, rapid current, at a temperature of 60 degrees Fahr.; between banks lined with eucalypti of enormous height, straight and round, as if turned in a lathe, up to 200 feet, without a branch ,—a lovely scene for a coup cl'e,ssai, for the initiatory " header" of the first of the kingly fish that ever burst into that silent stream. This was only one, and not nearly the most arduous, of Sir Samuel Wilson's feats of distribution. A subsequent trip to Gippsland overland was much more exciting, and actually dangerous ; but probably there was never afterwai de reproduced exactly the same sense of triumphant satisfaction as that when on this first occa- sion, lie ladled the tiny tenants of the cans into the clear, bright water, and saw them swimming about in little shoals, strong and lively, with their heads up stream, and evidently pleased. with their new quarters.
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