INTRODUCTORY. 19 



placed in a grating formed to receive them. The result was most 

 satisfactory. The box placed in the refrigerating case was a total 

 loss, the salmon eggs being too young when packed to stand the 

 treatment. The salmon ova in the Haslam chamber stood the 

 journey much better, although the loss was very great. With 

 the Lochleven trout eggs there was no loss in transport, but a 

 large number hatched, and so perished just before arrival at 

 destination. Taking this shipment, together with the success of 

 the consignment of trout ova per S.S. Aorangi, it became evident 

 that perfect success could be ensured in future, and that I had 

 found the key to the whole problem, namely, the precise period 

 which should elapse between spawning and packing of the ova. 



The next season the only consignment to New Zealand was 

 the fario eggs purchased by the Otago Acclimatisation Society, 

 referred to above, but 108,000 Lochleven trout ova were presented 

 to the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The 

 eggs were carried in my ordinary foreign packing-boxes, and the 

 success of the consignment may best be gathered from Mr. 

 Spencer Baird's letters of 8th and 10th Jan. 1885, and Colonel 

 Marshall Macdonald's of March 31st, 1885 : 



U.S. FISH COMMISSION, WASHINGTON, B.C., Jan. 8, 1885. 



DEAR SIR, I have much pleasure in acknowledging the arrival, in excellent 

 condition, of the trout eggs sent by you per Furnessia. Some of these were 

 transferred to Mr. Mather's station at Cold Spring Harbour, N.Y., and the 

 remainder to the Whitefish station of the Commission, in charge of Mr. Frank 

 N. Clark, at Northville, Michigan. Both gentlemen greatly admire the method 

 in which the eggs were packed, and the perfect condition in which they came to 

 hand. I will keep you further advised in the matter. Thanking you for this 

 courtesy, I remain, yours truly, SPENCER F. BAIRD, Comr. 



Sir JAMES G. MAITLAND, 



Craigend, Stirling, Scotland. 



U.S. COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 



WASHINGTON, B.C., Jany. 10, 1885. 

 DEAR SIR, 1 have much pleasure in enclosing herewith a report 1 by Mr. 



U.S. COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 

 COLD SPRING HARBOUR, NY., Jan. 7, 1885. 



DEAR SIR, In the matter of the Lochleven trout eggs, which I have already reported to you 

 as having arrived in good order and repacked and shipped, I will say : There were 570 dead 

 eggs, only one of which had a trace of fungus. There were perhaps as many more indented 



