.'362 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



four separate and distinct effects upon trout in various stages of 

 their development, due to want of " jeration " in the waters of the 

 ■Christchurch artesian water system. These are : — 



1. Death of yearling fish. 



2. Pop-eye, where death does not supervene. 



3. Mortality in the egg stage. 



4. Blue-swelling in the yolk sac stage. 



Of these, there is some evidence to indicate that the first two 

 are due to excess of gas, unless it be that the gas emboli and the gas 

 imprisoned behind the eye which causes the eye to protrude are 

 •secondary effects. With regard to the third and fourth, if it be 

 admitted that there is any difference in the behaviour of the two 

 wells considered towards the egg hatched and hatching in their 

 water, then these effects must be ascribed either to want of oxygen 

 ■or to radium emanation. It is for biologists and physiologists, 

 knowing the character of these two gases, to say which of them is 

 most likely to cause such a disease as blue-swelling. 



My apologies are perhaps due for drawing any conclusions 

 irom details so meagre. My excuse for doing so is that owing to 

 the shortness of the hatchery season and the impossibility of 

 placing the whole hatchery in the hands of experimenters only a 

 few results can be obtained in a year. My reason for bringing the 

 ■subject (one of New Zealand rather than Australian importance) before 

 the Australasian Association is the interest aroused in and the 

 theory promulgated on the discovery of eyeless fish in the waters of 

 the Corella bore. 



Our most sincere thanks are due to the authorities of the 

 Canterbury Acclimatisation Society for the interest they have 

 taken in the work, and to Mr. C. Rides in particular for the great 

 care he has taken in counting the number of individuals affected 

 in the various experiments. 



REPORT OF THE RESEARCH COMMITTEE (SECTION D) 

 FOR THE BIOLOGICAL AND HYDROGRAPHICAL 

 STUDY OF THE NEW ZEALAND COAST. 



List of xMembers.— Prof. A. P. W. Thomas, M.A., F.L.S. ; 

 A. Hamilton ; Dr. W. B. Benham, D.Sc, F.R.S. ; Edgar R. Waite, 

 F.L.S. ; Prof. C.Chilton, M. A., D.Sc. (Hon. Secretary and Convener). 



REPORT. 



This Committee was appointed at the Dunedin meeting of the 

 Association in 1904, and a sum of £50 was voted for its expenses. 

 Since that time the Committee has carried out the investigations 

 entrusted to it so far as possible, and though it has seldom been 

 possible for the Committee as a whole to make a joint expedition, 



