1 86 FISHES 



with the ova had they arrived at the Colony. The obtaining and 

 shipping of the ova was entrusted to Professor Cossar Ewart of 

 Edinburgh, who obtained between two and three million eggs from 

 the Ballantrae beds off the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland, where the 

 famous Loch Fyne herrings spawn. The ova were placed in large 

 carboys and in wooden boxes with glass slides, which were fixed 

 in stoutly made barrels filled with sea-water, and in this way were 

 conveyed to Plymouth and placed on board the ' Ruapehu.' Professor 

 Ewart had designed a special apparatus so constructed as to preserve 

 through the entire voyage a steady quiet flow of pure sea-water over 

 the eggs at an equable temperture of 33 Fahr. So far the experiment 

 succeeded admirably, but owing to lack of foresight in the cooling 

 apparatus, the pipes which were to supply the chilled water, instead 

 of being surrounded with ice, were led directly through the re- 

 frigerating chamber. The result was that the water froze in them, 

 none reached the ova, and by the time Madeira was sighted, all were 

 dead. 



The second experiment, also unsuccessful, was made by the 

 Government in 1912. The Portobello (Dunedin) Marine Fish 

 Hatchery was opened in 1904, and early in its history I had looked 

 into the question of the introduction of the herring. The question 

 of the retardation of the hatching of the ova again appeared to be the 

 principal difficulty, and I entered into communication with Dr Fulton, 

 Scientific Superintendent of the Scotch Fishery Board, with the object 

 of getting experiments conducted at the Dunbar Hatchery to test 

 this. Owing to the change from Dunbar to the Bay of Nigg, Aberdeen, 

 and to pressure of other work, the matter was allowed to lapse, and 

 it was not till 1908, this time at the instance of the New Zealand 

 Government, that a series of experiments was commenced by Dr H. C. 

 Williamson. The outcome of these experiments was that retardation 

 of hatching of the ova for a period of 50 days, which we considered 

 was the time required, was only successful to the extent of a small 

 fraction of one per cent. Less than one in ten thousand survived 

 such a long chilling. Both Mr Anderton, Curator of the Portobello 

 Hatchery, and I considered that under the circumstances it would 

 be a waste of public money to proceed further with the attempt to 

 introduce the herring by this means. However the Government 

 decided to make the attempt, and Mr Anderton was sent to the Old 

 Country in 1912, to carry it out, while at the same time he took 

 charge of a large shipment of turbot, lobsters and crabs. An ingenious 

 apparatus for the conveyance of the eggs, and for the cooling and 

 aeration of the water, was placed on board the Shaw, Savill & Albion 

 Co.'s S.S. 'Waimana,' and was thoroughly tested beforehand. The 



