120 SALMON OVA SENT TO AUSTRALIA. [CHAP. in. 



a solid mass of ice nine feet thick on the top, so that every 

 particle of this mass must melt before the ova would suffer. 

 Sixteen boxes, containing above 13,000 ova, were placed in 

 other parts of the ice-house, with ice below and above, as 

 well as all round the boxes. The ova were taken between the 

 13th and 15th January, placed on board the ship on the 18th, 

 and the Norfolk left the docks on the morning of the 21st, and 

 Plymouth on the 28th January. Thirty tons of Wenham 

 Lake ice were used in the experiment. 



The ship arrived at Hobson's Bay, Melbourne, on the 15th 

 of April, having been seventy-seven days on the voyage. A 

 few of the boxes containing the eggs were at once opened and 

 placed in a suitable hatching apparatus, but the larger portion 

 were sent off to Tasmania and reached Hobart Town on the 

 20th of April, where they were at once deposited in the pond 

 which had been carefully prepared for them on the river Plenty. 

 The following extract from a letter, written by the Hon. Dr. 

 Officer, Speaker of the House of Assembly, will show what 

 was done on the arrival of the eggs : " Soon after the arrival 

 of the first half of the boxes, the process of opening them and 

 depositing the ova in their watery beds commenced, and you 

 may be sure an anxious process it was. In the first two boxes 

 that were opened by far the greater number of the ova had 

 perished, but as we proceeded much more fortunate results 

 were obtained, and in many of the packages the living pre- 

 dominated over the dead. I could not attempt to state to you, 

 even approximately, at the present moment, the actual num- 

 ber of healthy ova that were found in the moss and placed in 

 the hatching-boxes, beyond saying that they amount to many 

 thousands, and are amply sufficient, if they should all con- 

 tinue to thrive and should become living fish, to insure the 

 complete success of our experiment. All the boxes have now 

 been opened except fifteen, and the ova first taken out have 

 been about twenty-four hours in the water. Among these 



