PROCEEDINGS, APRIL. Ill 



other rivers, of which I tried several without success. Owing to the 

 very mild wioter in Ireland salmon were found on the spawning beds 

 much earlier than usual, and in many rivers which were tried only 

 spawned fish were found. I was almost in despair of being able to get 

 a sufficient quantity of ova to export, when Mr. Moore, animated by 

 that kindness and public spirit which have always governed his actions, 

 in the most generous manner placed at my disposal any fish from any of 

 the rivers held by him, and also his very complete hatchery on the 

 banks of the river Erne, so as to enable the ova to be all " eyed " before 

 being sent away. It is to that gentleman, and not to me the colonists 

 are deeply indebted for the present large supply of ova. The fish from 

 which the os'a were taken varied very much in size, from 10 to upwards 

 of 201bs. each in weight. They were stripped in the middle of January 

 and placed in the hatchery where they remained till removed by me on 

 the 2Sth and 29th February, and 1st March last. The eyes in the ova 

 were first observed on tlie 23rd February by the superintendent of the 

 fishery, so that before being packed for their ultimate destination, all 

 the ova had been " eyed " for fully a week previously. The mode of 

 packing and transit was that so successfully adopted by Sir James 

 Maitland on a shipment of salmon ova by him to New Zealand in 1886. 

 The trays in which the ova were packed, consist of a light wooden frame, 

 lOin. square by 27in. deep, bottomed with perforated zinc. Into these 

 trays was placed at the bottom on the perforated zinc, a layer of clean 

 well-picked fresh moss (sphagnum). On this moss was placed a layer of 

 ova taken from the hatching rills. Above that, another layer of moss, 

 and on this latter another layer of ova, and finally another layer of 

 moss. Of these cases or trays there were 120, each of whi;h contained 

 about 18,000 ova. The number was ascertained by counting the number 

 of salmon ova in a given space on the rills, and making a calculation 

 accordingly with reference to the size of the trays in which they were 

 placed. It was the most accurate way of computing the number of 

 ova. Six of these cases were placed in what might be called refri- 

 gerating packing boxes, consisting of an inner box i|in. larger than 

 the frames of the trays or cases ; the outer box was 4in. deeper than 

 the inner and .3in. wider for sawdust to be packed between the two 

 boxes, to serve not only as a protection against frost, but to act as a 

 cushion and minimise the effects of rough usage. An air space surrounds 

 the trays to secure an equal temperature to each. These boxes are 2ft. 

 Tin. long by 1ft. 6iin. wide, and 1ft. 8Mn. high outside measurement. 

 The inside box is sufliciently smaller to allow a few inches of sawdust 

 between the two boxes. Charred fillets are fitted into the inside box, 

 which is also charred, to hold the trays half an inch clear Each tray 

 has four holes cut in the sides to admit air freely to the moss and to 

 facilitate adjusting. A large ice tray rests on the top of the ova trays, 

 but clear of the moss covering the ova, and is bevelled outwards so 

 as to entirely close the inside of the outer box. This most successful 

 mode of transporting ova was invented by Sir James Maitland, Bart., 

 of European celebrity, for hatching and transporting ova of many 

 species of fish from his great fish hatching at Hawistown, and the 

 description given by me is taken from his book. Having packed these 

 120 trays or cases into 20 of these transport boxes, I found that I 

 had a large (quantity of ova still over — which I brought to Loudon 

 with mc in bottles, swung in trames in a particular manner invented 

 by myself, and which I packed in London in .30 boxes, of about 

 ISin. by 12in. by about 4in. deep, in the same manner as I had 

 already packed the cases for the refrigerating transport boxes. The 

 surplus of ova was caused b\' my having placed only two layers of 

 ova in each tray instead of three, which they were originally designed 

 for, having learned that a good deal of the ova in the wider layer 

 where there were three, sent to New Zealand, had not reached their 



