BY P. S. SEAGER. 15 



averaged about 47° up to 12tli May, from which date to 5th 

 July the average was about 41°. It was estimated that there 

 were about 35,000 living ova, including trout ova. On the 

 4th May the first trout ova hatched, and on the following day 

 the first salmon ; the hatching of the trout continued 

 until the 25th May, and of the salmon until 8th June ; 

 the salmon fry were kept in the hatching boxes until 

 *arly in August, when they were permitted to pass 

 into the rill attached to a large salmon pond. The 

 trout were kept in the boxes until the end of August, 

 when owing to several deaths and the appearance of disease 

 amongst them, they were removed to a specially prepared 

 rill, when their number was found to be nearly 303. The 

 mortality amongst the fry was very trifling, and the fish 

 continued to feed and thrive well in their new home. The 

 prospect so long hoped for of establishing the salmon in these 

 southern seas seemed about to be realised. So much has 

 been said and written of late years in relation to this experi- 

 ment, and so many misrepresentations and misstatements 

 made in reference thereto — frequently by those who should 

 have hesitated to make assertions without due enquiry, and 

 assertions which could not be supported — that it seems 

 desirable to give in rather full detail the number of fish 

 liberated from the ponds, and the date of liberation. 



A statement has been made that all the fish resulting from 

 the Norfolk shipment died before reaching the Derweut, but 

 this statement has arisen from the circumstance that on 

 4th October following the hatching, when the fry wore about 

 five mouths old, a leak was discovered from the salmon pond 

 communicating with the River Plenty, through which it was 

 found that the fry were escaping, as one was captured in a 

 box placed at the outlet of the leak. A trench was at once 

 cut, and the leak repaired, which occupied 19 days, and 

 during that period 240 fry passed from the pond into the 

 leak, and were captured and returned to the pond. A very 

 large nunaber must have already reached the Plenty, the 

 number escaping boing estimated at 1,500. This estimate 

 was am'ived at from the fact that upwards of 3,000 fry were 

 admitted to the pond from the breeding boxes, that the mor- 

 tality to the discovery of the leak was trifling, and that 

 owing to the careful watch kept night and day by Mr. Kanis- 

 bottom and his assistants, the natural enemies in the shape 

 of water rats and platypi were destroyed. Mr. Kanisbottoni, 

 in his diary, referring to the water bursting upon them when 

 repairing the leak, which necessitated the immediate filling up 

 of the trench, writes : — " As to how many of our young fish 

 passed away with this terrible flow of water, I cannot give 

 the shadow of an idea, only that a vast number must have 



