■_'74 Spawning. ('hut. xxi. 



Vanvl. aud Sir J. Emerson Tennent,* had observed that ' the 

 " ' impregnated ova of the fish of one rainy season are left un- 

 " ' hatched in the mud through the dry season, and from their low 

 " ' state of organisation as ova, the vitality is preserved till the 

 " ' recurrence and contact of the rain and oxygen in the next wet 

 " ' season, when vivification takes place from their joint influence.' 

 " It would seem, therefore, that we need not be disheartened at 

 " being met with the objection that ice and moss are not as easily 

 " procured in India for the transportation of ova as in England. 

 " We have at least reasonable ground for entertaining the hope 

 " that in the tropical heat of India there is placed readily at our 

 " command an equally potent, much more simple, and much less 

 " expensive, means of suspending the animation of ova encased 

 " in sun-dried mire. There are numerous instances on record of 

 " vivified fish also (of particular sorts) both as fry and as mature 

 " fish, being thus kept alive in the drought, and the crocodile 

 " sestivates in the sun-burnt clay of a Ceylon tank in the same 

 " way as the alligator of the Mississippi hybernates in the frost. 

 " This interesting fact in Natural History may be made of 

 " practical use in pisciculture, and the experiment would seem to 

 "be at least worth a trial." If the suggestion prove practical, 

 pisciculturists of tropical climes will be at no disadvantage, but 

 rather the contrary as compared in this respect with the piscicul- 

 turists of Europe. 



It may be that this manner of treatment will only suit certain 

 sorts of fish ova, it may be that it will suit more than we find 

 ordinarily using it in nature, for the manner in which the 

 animation of various insects is suspended, when encased in mud 

 by the carpenter wasps, and by certain ichneumon Hies, is somewhat 

 analogous and suggestive. 



And I since find Buchanan also. 



