44 



ACCOUNT OF THE RECENT SUCCESSFUL INTRODUCTION OF 

 THE SALMON OVA TO TASMANIA. 



[Read by Mr. M. Allport, on the 10th May, 1864.] 



At the refjuest of Mr, William Ramsbottom, I have now the pleasure of 

 giving to the Fellows of the Royal Society, a detailed account of tb^ recent 

 succeissful introduction of salmon ova to our waters, but before doing so, I wish 

 to call attention to the fact that the Council and Fellows of this Society wero 

 the first to recognise the vtist importance of this undertaking to the best 

 interests of Tasmania, and to take practical measures to ensure its success. 



In the year 1858^, this Society ajjpointed a sub-committee to enquire into and 

 report upon the subject. That report is to be found amongst the transactions 

 of the Society for the satne year, and I need not, therefore, further allude to 

 it, but, to show the contiuued interest taken by the Fellows in this question, I 

 would call to your recollection the reception accorded to Mr. Black, after the 

 disastrous attempt made in the S. Curling, and to Mr. William Ramsbottom, 

 on the arrival of the Beautiful Star, two years ago. Indeed, as early as the 

 year 1857, Mr. Marwedel, a Fellow of this Society, forwarded to our then 

 Secretary a letter, in which he referred to an interview with M, Coste, who 

 has made many valuable contributions to the science of piscicultre, and who then 

 suggested the packing of salmon ova in damp moss, but did not in any way 

 refer to the use of ice ; which, as will be presently seen, is essential to success. 

 Again, the uU particulars of Mr. Ramsbottom's first voyage were published by 

 the aid of this Society, and those particulars now foim a valuable portion of 

 our records. 



Upon referring to the account of that first voyage, I became convinced that 

 any person might well amongst all the discomforts and disasters of a passage 

 such as that made by the Beautiful Star, have given up all hope, and never 

 have turned his attention to the litle box, which was broken open, and pitchng 

 about loose in the ice-house on board that vessel. Not so Air. Ramsbottom, 

 however, for he carefully removed the broken Md and moss, and examined the 

 ova, which, to his amazement, were still at the end of some 80 daj'^s, alive and 

 well, and to this circumstance alone is to be attributed our present success. 



Upon receiving Mr. Ramsbottom's first report, the present Commissioners, 

 who were appointed several years ago by the then government, decided upon 

 sending Mr. Ramsbottom to England expressly to try the experiment of packing 

 ova in ice, with a view to retarding their development, and this experiment 

 was accordingly tried in London, under the direction of Mr. Youl, during the 

 winter of 1862 and 1863. The wonderful success of that trial, showing that 

 ova may be hatched safely after being buried in ice 150 days, has been fully 

 published to the world, but I have never yet seen a good explanation of why 

 this was likely to prove successful. Even Mr. Frank Bujkland, in his book on 

 fish-hatehing, speaks of freezmg the ova, and thereby greatly misleads his 

 readers. It was long ago shown that actually to freeze ova, was to kill them 

 in a few days, or at most, weeks. The question then was, how could they be 

 kept at an equable temperature, just above the freezing point ? If a block of 

 ice (the sensible temperature of which is 32° Fahrenheit) be immersed in water 

 of a higher temperature, a portion of the ice will melt until the heat of the 

 water falls to 32°, but no more of the ice will be afterwards melted until the 

 temperatvu-e of the water is again raised. If the ice could cool the water below 

 32°, a portion of the water would be frozen, but to effect this a further portion 

 of the ice must be melted, and water at 32° is not capable of meltmg ice. If 

 vessels containing creams be immersed in ice for a month, no change would 

 take place in their contents, but convei-t a portion of the surrounding ice to 

 water by the admixture of any deliquescent salt, and the submerged creams are 

 instantly frozen. Therefore, by this beautiful provision of nature any substance 

 above the freezing point, buried in ice, can never fall to the freezing point till 

 the ice next to it is converted to water, and so long as any ice remains, the 

 buried substance will continue at a low temperature certainly, but above the 

 freezing point, and to this principle we are indebted for our present success. 



Now, to come to Mr. Ramsbottom's present voyage. After many interviews 

 ■with the owners of various ships, Mr. Youl (to whom this colony is greatly 

 indebted for his determined perseverance in this respect) received the munificent 

 offer from Messrs. Money Wigram & Co, of 50 tons of room, gratis, in their 

 chpper ship Norfolk, bound to Melbourne. An ice-house, capable of holding 

 30 tons, was built in a situation admirably chosen for the purpose, on the 

 lowest deck amidships, and equi-distant from stem and stern ; in the position 



