61 



EEPORT ON THE PEESENT STATE OF THE FEY 

 OF THE SALMON AND SALMON TEOUT AT THE 

 PLENTY; AND OF THE TAEING OF THE FIEST 

 SPAWN FEOM THE BEOWN TEOUT. 



I HAVE now to report that the hatching of the last batch 

 of ova is complete, and that the young fish are progressing 

 most favorably. Mr. Eamsbottom counted those which hatched 

 from the salmon ova up to 5,000, and estimates the remainder 

 at about 1,000, making 6,000 in all. The salmon trout safely 

 hatched he estimates at about 1,000. 



And I have further to report that spawn has been success- 

 fully taken from one of the common or brown trout, and is now 

 deposited in a separate box prepared for its reception ; in addi- 

 tion to the one trout that has spawned, several more have been 

 examined, in which the ova are rapidly approaching maturity, 

 and from which the spawn will probably be taken during this 

 month. 



An anonymous writer in the Australasian, of the 23rd June 

 last, expresses great dissatisfaction at the discrepancy between 

 the first estimates of the number of healthy ova and the sub- 

 sequent numbers of fry actually counted, but a large number 

 of Australian colonists are unable to appreciate the difficulties 

 to be overcome, from their total ignorance of the subject, and 

 it is quite possible that this writer may be included amongst 

 that number. 



There are two principal causes for the discrepancy com- 

 plained of : — In artificial fish-breeding in Europe it has been 

 invariably observed that the most critical time in the life of 

 the young fish is when it is just at the point of hatching out ; 

 large numbers often die immediately before and at the time of 

 the bursting of the q^^. If this is the case when the ova have 

 been carefully treated, and where every appliance is at hand 

 to render the process of hatching as natural as possible, how 

 much more certain is it that we must at the same critical 

 period lose a far larger percentage here after the ova have 

 been subjected to the unnatural packing in boxes, and to the 

 tossing about of a sea vovage for more than one hundred 

 days. 



To explain the second cause of discrepancy I must call your 

 attention for one moment to the wonderful process by which the 

 ova in a state of nature are fecundated. When the ova are 

 ripe for extrusion from the female fish and the milt from the 

 male, the eggs are poured out in a continuous stream by the 

 one, the milt by the other, the two streams mingling. The 



