Ixiv REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



all over for the free admission of air. The eggs were thiis kept from 

 direct contact with the ice, but blocks of ice were placed over the boxes. 

 The eggs were never actually frozen, although maintained at a temper- 

 ature not far from 32°. An ice-house was built in the vessel, and the 

 eggs were undisturbed from the beginning to the end of the journey. 

 The transfer was made on the ship Norfolk, 50 tons of space being 

 assigned for the purpose. 



The eggs, to the number of about 100,000, were collected by Mr. Youl, 

 and contributed voluntarily by various gentlemen in England. The 

 vessel sailed on the 21st of January, and cast anchor in Hobson's Bay 

 on the 15th of April. The ice house was then opened for the first time 

 since it had been closed ou the Thames, and a large portion of the con- 

 tents proved to be sound and in good condition. Strong wooden boxes 

 were then prepared, in each of which about fifteen of the small original 

 boxes of eggs, covered with a considerable thickness of ice, and wrapped 

 in blankets, were securely packed. Eleven of these larger boxes, con- 

 taining in all 170 of the English boxes, were then transported to Hobart 

 Town, and eleven were retained by the Acclimatization Society of Vic- 

 toria. On the 20th of April the Hobart Town eggs reached their des 

 tiuation, and were carried up the Derwent Kiver to New Norfolk, and 

 thence to the ponds prepared for them on the little river Plenty, about 

 seven miles distant. The ova were immediately placed in the gravel of 

 the hatchiug-boxes, and a stream of water directed over them, which for 

 a time .was cooled by the remainder of the ice ; afterward, however, the 

 water supplied was of the natural temperature. The number of healthy 

 eggs placed in the pond was estimated at about 14,000, and the first 

 embryo hatched out ou the 1th of May. 



In 1860 a second consignment of about 93,000 salmon-eggs was shipped 

 to Tasmania, and, after a voyage of one hundred days, they reached 

 their destination in Hobson's B:iy on the 1st of May, and were forwarded 

 to the hatching-house on the river Plenty, as before. About 30,000 

 eggs were found to be healthy, from which they succeeded in obtaining 

 about 0,000 young fish. 



The young fry hatched in May, 1864, were discharged from the pond 

 as smolts toward the end of 1865, while the next lot, about 6,000 in 

 number, was let out in September or October, 1807. Descending the 

 Plenty into the Derwent River, they had a few miles of fresh water 

 before reaching the estuary above New Norfolk. The experiment is 

 believed to have been entirely successful, though it was not until 1874 

 that a specimen was taken of what is believed to have been a genuine 

 salmon-grilse, actually born in Tasmania. 



Corresponding experiments were carried on with reference to the 

 English sea-trout, which proved entirely successful. This- fish is now 

 actually acclimated in Tasmania, and propagates naturally in the Der- 

 went River, where specimens are constantly taken for the table, some of 

 them weighing as much as seven pounds. 



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