120 Plow to obtain it. 



tried many experiments, and can produce much better fish, and 

 hatch ova with a lower death-rate on glass than I can by any other 

 method. I have, therefore, kept to the system, and can speak 

 very highly of it. I believe very good work has been done by 

 many of the other systems now in use, but where the best results 

 are desired by all means use glass. I shall have more to say 

 about this in another chapter. 



There are at least three great advantages attaching to the 

 use of ova, viz. : 



(1) They bear packing and transit well; 



(2) They can be sent to any part of the world ; 



(3) They cost very little. 



In searching for details relating to the success attending the 

 stocking of waters, I find that the use of ova has played a very 

 important part .in the history of the world's fish-culture. The 

 Chinese have been fish-culturists from time immemorial, and they 

 deal extensively in ova, collecting and carrying to market the eggs 

 of their fishes, and making them regular marketable commodities. 

 The splendid results which have been achieved in New Zealand, 

 and also in Australia and Tasmania, are due to the use of ova. 

 Trout eggs were sent from this country twenty-five years or more 

 ago, and the result is that to-day their waters are, in many cases, 

 stocked with fish, and it is also a notable fact, that the trout have 

 grown, in many places, to a greater size than is attained in this 

 country. Ten to twenty pounds seems to be not an uncommon 

 weight for Salmo fario in some New Zealand waters, whilst much 

 greater weights are occasionally recorded. 



The history of trout-culture at the Antipodes is very instruc- 

 tive. About 800 trout ova were successfully hatched in New 

 Zealand in 1868, and these ova were obtained from the natural 

 spawning grounds in Tasmania. Now, we find that the first 

 introduction of trout into Tasmania was effected in the year 1 864, 

 being only four years previous to the introduction to New Zealand. 

 During that year a small number of eggs were sent out from this 

 country by Mr. Frank Buckland, Mr. Youl, and Mr. Francis 

 Francis, the number being about 2,700 altogether. As a result of 

 the importation of trout ova into Tasmania, and their cultivation, 

 we find, in four years, that country sending ova, taken from fish 



