REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *35 



Holland, care of C. B. Bottemanne, Royal Zoological Garden, Amster- 

 dam. 



Eacli crate contained 25,000 eggs, packed according to the usual 

 method. Mr. Mather accompanied these eggs to Xew York, and as the 

 German steamer did not sail until the 13th of the month he thought it 

 advisable to take them to his house in Xewark, where they could be 

 stored in a cellar and jjroperly jirotected. He had arranged to repack 

 these eggs according to a method of his own devising, and had trans- 

 feired 25,000 to their new crates when he was instructed, by telegraph, 

 not to interfere with the packing they had received, it being thought 

 that the risk involved would be greater in making the change. 



The vessel selected for the shipment was the Mosel, of the I^^orth Ger- 

 man Lloyds, Captain Neinaber in command, the comi)any having offered 

 every facility for the carrying out of this imi^ortant experiment. A 

 supply of ice was procured, and the eggs were placed in the forward 

 hatchway on the main deck, properly packed to prevent injury. The 

 proijosition to surround the eggs with a lot of straw was not carried 

 out, owing to the fear on the part of the captain of danger from fire. 

 Although notice of the probable tune of the arrival of the vessel at 

 Southampton was telegraphed from New York, the messenger of Mr. 

 Buckland, for some reason, did not reach that place until after the 

 steamer had left for Bremen, and his quota of eggs were accordingly 

 added to those for Germany. 



The vessel was met at Bremerhaven by Dr. O. Finsch, curator of 

 the Bremen Museum, in behalf of the Deutsche Fisherei Verein; by Di- 

 rector Haack, for Hiiningen; by Mr. Heck, of Amsterdam, and Mr. 

 Schreiber, of Hameln, who took charge of their respective packages. 

 Perhaps in consequence of the situation of the eggs on the ship, all 

 except those that had been repacked by Mr. Mather were in bad 

 condition, so much so, indeed, that but few of them survived. Of the 

 25,000 repacked for Germany, only 396 were lost, proving the efficiency 

 of Mr. Mather's method. Nearly all the remaining eggs were dead, or 

 died soon after being transferred to the hatching-houses, a small per- 

 centage alone yielding any fish. Considerable vexation was expressed, 

 by the fish-culturists of Germany and Holland, in regard to what they 

 considered the impracticable method of packing the eggs adopted by 

 Mr. Stone ; but there is every assurance that if they had been placed 

 under more favorable circumstances in the vessel, they would have gone 

 through safely, as will be seen by the account of the shii^ment to Kew 

 Zealand of eggs packed in ijrecisely the same way, which reached their 

 destination in good condition, after a voyage of eight weeks instead of 

 two, the percentage of loss being very trifling. 



In the Appendix wiU be found a detailed account by Mr, Mather of 

 his experiences. 



Fifty thousand e'ggs were taken by Mr. Mather for the Soci^te d'Ac- 



