228 SEASON 1876-77. 



C. I have often spawned fish in hard frost. Within ordinary 



limits, no evils result ; the eggs take longer to adhere and 

 much longer to free sometimes an hour and a quarter. 

 The eggs require to be carefully thawn, if frozen to the 

 bottom of the spawning-dish ; and my experience is that 

 the percentage of impregnation is sensibly affected if a 

 film of ice forms on the surface of the dish after the 

 water is added. I have used milt after it had been 

 exposed to 20 F. for several hours ; the resulting 

 embryos were deficient in vitality. We must, however, 

 repeat the experiment frequently before we are justified 

 in assuming the deficiency was due to the frozen milt. 

 But the experiment does prove that milt may be frozen 

 without destroying entirely its vivifying power. 



D. Eggs should be packed at the river-side in preference to 



waiting till next morning ; but they should be packed in 

 trays in such a way that they can be picked over next 

 day. But in 1876 few besides myself believed in 

 packing partially-eyed ova for so long a journey as to 

 the antipodes, and at that time I had had no experience 

 in sending eggs long distances. 



SEASON 1876-77. FISH-CULTURE. 



The stock on hand on the 1st of August this season (1876) 

 consisted of the old S. fario in Craigend dam, numbering a little 

 over 100 ; about 200 hybrids in the octagon (then only an earth) 

 pond, and some 3060 S. levenensis (yearlings) hatched in 1875. 

 Besides these, there were about 10,000 S. levenensis (fry) hatched 

 1876, some 3000 S. fario (fry), hatched also 1876, and between 

 1100 and 1400 of the so-called "hybrids" (fry), hatched 1876, 

 between " Queichy " and a small burn-trout male. These 

 springlings were distributed between the plank ponds and the 

 rearing-boxes. The young fish were well grown. One, on the 

 20th August (hatched 23d Jan. 1876), measured 2'6 inches; 

 and one (hatched Jan. 1875) measured, on the 14th September, 



