SALMON AT LAST.

Southland Times, Issue 1525, 16 January 1872, Page 3

SALMON AT LAST.

The following is the Melbourne Argus's Launceston correspondent's account of the finding of a " true salmon " in the Derwent : — A fish has been caught new in these waters, and though, the savaiis are divided about it, as usual, I am of those who are decidedly of opinion that it is a grilse, hatched in the Plenty, and that when it offered itself as a sacrifice to sustain the credit of the accliinatisers, the vote for the salmon ponds being still in question in Parliament, it waa on its way from the sea to its native river to spawn. It was found a few mornings ago in a boat moored in the Derwent, almost under the windows of Sir .Robert Officer's house at New Norfolk. It had been leaping in the night, and an unfortunate spring carried it into the boat, from which, as the mud showed, it had made many unsuccessful efforts to leap out again. The finder, Mr Cooper, seDt it down to the city for inspection. It was admitted that no fish altogether like it had ever before been taken in the waters of Tasmania. One gentleman was not satisfied as to it 3 true character, because its teeth did not exactly accord with those of the salmon, as given by piscatorial authorities. Another pronounced it to be a river trout, whose color had become changed by the brackish water in which it was found. A third — who is the owner but not the possessor of the only copy of Yarrell's " History of British Fishes" in the Colony, but who does not at present know the name of the gentleman who had borrowed it from his fish-shop without asking leave — would not believe it to be a river trout, and pronounced it to be a salmon trout, or sea trout proper. Mr Cooper, who found the fish, was for many years resident in Ayrshire, where he landed many a salmon and grilse from the pools and salmon runs of the classic Doon. He states that he has no doubt whatever as to the real character of the stranger. It was a grilse, of between 4ibs and 51bs in weight. When found, and the mud washed away, it showed the pure olive-colored back, and the silvery belly of a fish newly from the sea. It was found full of spawn, and was therefore on its way up the stream to the spawning beds, following the instinct of the species. Its eyes were large, aud placed far forward, as in the salmon ; it had the fins of the grilse, and the shape and tail of that handsome fish. It was put, moreover, to the crucial test of the dinner table, and the flesh was of the true color and flavor. It waa a veritable grilse, and a finely fleshed one too! I cannot imagine any ground for believing it to have been a wandering river trout. It had little resemblance to that fish, and I never before heard of river trout being found in brackish water. In the condition of the fish in question, unless it partook of the lunacy prevalent about New Norfolk, it would have gone up instead of down the river, from whence it came. Though I have doubts in accepting Sir Eobert Officer's statement that salmon are continually " running up and down " the Derwent, big fish of some kind are undoubtedly often seen during the day, and oftener heard during the night, where this grilse was caught ; and lam now therefore a believer in the success of the acclimatisers, and in the absolute fact of salmon being in the Derwent.