42 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



Packing the eggs of tliese fishes for the purpose of sending them long 

 distances, as to the Antipodes, must be adverted to in order to give a connected 

 history of vphat has been accomplished in this country respecting the Salmonidse, 

 for various plans have found favour for conveying these ova from place 

 to place in Europe, and also for transporting them long distances across the 

 sea.* In 1862, Mr. Youl's discovery that the French mode of conveying 

 salmonoid eggs in moss could be adapted to sending them in safety even through 

 tropical heat, was a great advance. Some eggs will almost invariably die when 

 travelling far, however well they may be packed, although the safest time is to 

 transmit them during the eyed stage ; still they have been conveyed earlier. The 

 main principle is to employ thin layers of well-picked and pressed moss in trays 

 with perforated bottoms,t the eggs being separated from the moss by muslin, 



* Ephemera, writing in BeWs Life (December 11th, 1853), observed " Earl Grey did, and the 

 Duke of Newcastle does, favour and sujDport an attempt to transfer sahnon to the rivers in Van 

 Diemen's Land by artificial means, under the direction of Mr. Gottlieb Boccius. One attempt 

 has failed, Mr. Boccius says, tlirougli the retention, beyond the day fixed for saihng, by more 

 than a month at Plymouth, of the shiia, on board of which impregnated salmon ova were placed 

 in tanks prepared with due care. This is not to occur in a second attempt about to be made 

 shortly." In the year 1851 the attention of Mr. Youl was first directed to this subject, and he 

 concluded that the fry or ova alone could be successfully conveyed through the tropics, but for which 

 the assistance of iced water would be indispensable. On February 25th, 1860, about 35,000 salmon 

 ova were shijiped in the " Curling " at Liverpool for Melbourne. They were in a swing-tray, 

 through which a stream of water flowed from a tank on deck, the connection being by small tin 

 pipes placed inside and around an ice-house which contained upwards of fifteen tons of ice. On 

 the sixty-fifth day the ice had become exhausted, the temperature of the water suddenly rose 

 to 71°, and the last of the ova died. On March 4th, 186"2, a second venture was made in the 

 " Beautiful Star," packed as follows : — A wooden tin-lined tank, holding two hundred gallons of 

 water, was built on deck and surrounded by a casing of charcoal. Directly under it was the 

 ice-house constructed to carry twenty-five tons of ice, at the bottom of which was a flat iron tank 

 holding one hundred gallons, connected to the upper tank by an iron pipe which passed nearly through 

 the centre of the ice-house. The cooled water was conducted by iron pipes to the vivarium where 

 the ova were placed on two sets of swing-trays with gravel, and the stream which flowed out 

 of the vivarium, ran into a receiving tank, from which it was pumped back to the large wooden 

 tin-lined tank. All the pijjes were regulated by stop-cocks attached to flexible gutta-percha 

 piping at their extremities, and from five hundred to two thousand gallons could be passed through 

 at discretion during twenty-four hours. It was in this vessel Mr. Youl first turned to account the 

 mode of packing fish ova which was then in use. Having seen in Paris moss employed for this 

 purpose, and in which they successfully travelled short distances, at least after their eyes had 

 become developed, he packed some similarly in a wooden box made of inch pine and having its 

 sides perforated ; this he deposited in the centre of the ice-house. On May l8th the ice was very 

 low, the box came to light, and in it were nineteen living ova ; nine days subsequently the ice 

 was exhausted, and although the ova perished, the method of successfully conveying them 

 through the tropics had been solved. 



f The following is the plan as employed at Howietoun, taken from the Hportinrj and Dramatic 

 News ;— " The packing is managed so as to subject the eggs to as little handling as possible. A 

 large sink stands at the foot of the staircase of the principal hatching-house, a lead basin is 

 l^laced at one end, and a box a little larger than a grille is floated in this sink, partly resting on 

 the edge of the basin. One end of the box is open, and water rises through it to a depth of three 

 inches. So soon as the embryo in the salmon ova is sufficiently formed to show as a thick white 

 line, the ova may be moved with impunity, the grilles are lifted out of the boxes, and reversed, 

 one by one, into the wooden trough. After 50,000 eggs have been thrown off, a waste valve is 

 opened, and the water draws all the eggs into the lead basin. 



" They are then scooj^ed with a glass measure into frames covered with coarse peach netting, 

 an undulating motion is given to the floating frame, and the eggs spread as if by magic one into 

 each mesh. A thin square of felted or conijDressed moss is laid over the frame, and a small piece 

 of muslin over the moss. A frame covered with some soft material is placed over the muslin, and 

 the whole reversed. When the first frame is removed the eggs are seen beautifully arranged on 

 the moss in rows corresponding to the meshes of the net. The muslin is then lifted into the 

 travelling tray, and a second square of moss gently laid over the eggs. Each travelling tray holds 

 three layers, and six are usually placed in a box. It requires two hours to pack 100,000 eggs for 

 New Zealand. For shorter journeys eggs are thrown off the frames on to swan's down, which 

 takes little more than half the time, and greatly facilitates the unpacking at the end of the 

 journey." Livingstone-Stone {Domesticated Trout, p. 147) observed that " the usual way in 

 i:)ractice to pack trout eggs for transportation in small quantities is in circular tin boxes, with 

 perforated ends, not over three or four inches in depth, and one six inches in diameter is supposed 

 to be able to hold about 5000 eggs. These boxes are packed in a tin pail of somewhat larger 

 circumference, and the interspace between the two is filled in with sawdust. For packing, he 

 advised as follows : — Fill a large pan, a little deeper than the packing box, with water. Make a 



