BY P. S. SEAGER. 7 



Tasmania had been carried out by the Eoyal Society, but now 

 a wider interest was being felt in the subject, with stronger 

 hopes of success. The Government, on 21st October, 1801, 

 appointed a body of gentlemen as Honorary Commissioners in 

 Tasmania, and entrusted to them the management of the whole 

 subject. 



The Commissioners at once entered heartily into their work. 

 Prior to their appointment, however, the Government of 

 Tasmania, acting in accordance with the recommendation of 

 the Parliamentary Committee last referred to, had authorised 

 another experiment under the direction of the Committee of 

 the Australian Association in London, and the Commissioners 

 found upon enquiry that all such arrangements were completed. 

 The association in England derived great assistance from Mr, 

 Edward Wilson, of Melbourne, but the chief worker was Mr. 

 James A. Youl, who really directed all matters in connection 

 with the experiment. Mr. Toul's great desire was that the 

 shipment should be direct to Hobart, and possibly to some 

 extent the giving effect to this desire contributed to the 

 failure which followed, as at the time he had under offer a larger 

 Tessel bound to Melbourne, in which the apparatus required 

 would probably have worked more satisfactorily. After much 

 difficulty he secured a small iron steamer of 120 tons (the 

 Beautiful Star), at a cost of £500, which was, however, to sail 

 to the colony under a jury rig, and not to use her steam power. 

 The apparatus used consisted of trays, one set hung on gimbals, 

 and another large swinging tray, in each of which the ova was 

 laid on gravel, over which iced water flowed at the rate of 500 

 gallons per day. Mr. "William Eamsbottom, a son of ]\Ir. R. 

 Eamsbottom, of Clitheroe, had been brought to England from 

 Melbourne and appointed to conduct the experiment. He 

 sailed in the Beautiful Star from London on 4th March, 1862, 

 with about 50,000 salmon ova. Full particulars of the voyage 

 and its disasters appear in the report by Mr. Eamsbottom, 

 which discloses that the gimbal apparatus proved a complete 

 failure from the outset, the ova dying in great numbers on the 

 first day at sea, caused by the violent rolling of the apparatus 

 keeping them continually in motion. The swinging apparatus 

 worked successfully, so far as the limited space in the vessel 

 would permit it to do so. Ova hatched, and the fry survived 

 for a limited period only, owing principally to a succession of 

 severe gales, and finally to the failure of the ice supply, which 

 was exhausted at 12-30 on 17th May, on which date the whole 

 of the remaining ova died at 1 p.m., with the exception of a 

 few taken from a small box in the ice-house, which lived for 

 eight hours beyond this time, 7-1 days after the date of sailing, 

 and 88 days from the time of the ova being taken from the 

 parent fish. 



