TRANSMISSION OF SALMON EGGS TO AUSTRALIA, ETC. 877 



Traveling at about 4 miles an hour, by sundown we reached Centre 

 Hill Station, and halted to rest two hours, until the moon rose. At 11 

 p. m. we again started, guided by Mr. Connor — the road, and especially 

 the fords, being difficult to find in the dark. By daylight the first ford 

 of the Mararoa Eiver was reached, and we again halted for an hour, and 

 repacked the chest containing the ova, filling it up with all the ice that 

 was left, and leaving the spare ice-chest, and so lightening the load. 

 At 11 a. m., on the 23d, we arrived at Messrs. Hankinson's Station and 

 obtained fresh horses, and by 3 p. m. the most difficult part of the road, 

 which is that crossing the mountains bounding the east side of the lake, 

 had been overcome, and the journey safely accomplished. By previous 

 arrangement the hatching-troughs had been prepared by Mr. F. Han- 

 kinson, so that with his assistance no time was lost in unpacking the 

 ova, and by 6 p. m. the operation was completed and the result of the 

 experiment ascertained. I regret to say that this was not very satis- 

 factory, as out of the four boxes of ova three were almost completely 

 destroyed by the growth of white fungus, and the. young fish, which had 

 evidently been hatched out for some time, were reduced to a pulpy jelly. 

 In the fourth box, in which there was only a slight growth of fungus, a 

 considerable number of the ova were found in sound condition, and 

 hatched out rapidly as they were transferred to the trough. The trough 

 was not placed actually in the lake, but in a small stream fed by a spring 

 close to the shore, the temperature of the water being a little below 50° 

 Fahr. After completing the arrangements I returned to Messrs. Han- 

 kinson's Station, leaving Mr. Burton, taxidermist to the Colonial Museum, 

 in charge of the young fish, with instructions to camp beside them, and 

 tend them until they were sufficiently advanced to turn out in the lake. 



I should state that the supply of ice proved to be quite sufficient, more 

 than 50 pounds being left In the ice-chest at the end of the journey. 



The reason of the failure of the ova was evidently defective treatment 

 during some part of the long journey from Lake Michigan. Each box 

 contained four layers of eggs placed between layers of gauze-net and 

 moss. The ova-boxes, which were 11 inches square by 5 inches deep, 

 had several holes bored in both top and bottom, and the only sound ova 

 were in the top layers, and out of reach of these holes. I may state that 

 this was also found to be the case in one out of the two boxes left at 

 Dunedin, the other being a total failure. 



At Christchurch, also, a few sound ova were found in a similar posi- 

 tion in one of the boxes. 



I am inclined to think that the ova-boxes, when placed in the ice- 

 chests, should have been surrounded with ice instead of having it only 

 on the top, as, if great care was not taken to cool the ice-chests thor- 

 oughly before the ova-boxes were i)laced in them, it is obvious that the 

 temperature of the ova-boxes would be at first considerably raised, while 

 at the same time the water of the melting ice would drip through the 

 holes and saturate the contents, and so cause the ova to hatch. 



