18 MR. MORTON ALLPORT ON THE (Jan. 13, 
moss was imbedded, at the suggestion of Mr. C. H. Moscrop, Ma- 
nager of the Wenham-Lake Ice Company, London, as appears by a 
letter from that gentleman published in the ‘ Times’ of the 13th of 
July, 1863. The management during the voyage was intrusted to 
Mr. William Ramsbottom, who had been engaged in Melbourne and 
sent to England for the purpose. On the 4th of March, 1862, the 
« Beautiful Star ’ left London, and on the 8th was compelled, through 
stress of weather, to put back to the Downs; in this short period 
from 6000 to 7000 of the ova died. On the 13th of March the 
© Beautiful Star’ left the Downs ; and on the 16th the filler-in of the 
screw propeller was carried away, which compelled her to put back 
to Scilly for repairs. The vessel left Scilly on the 24th of March, 
and encountered a furious gale in the Bay of Biscay on the 27th, 
during which time the ova were destroyed in vast numbers. Fine 
weather succeeded the gale; but it was manifest, from the delays 
already experienced and the bad sailing-qualities of the vessel, that 
the ice could not hold out even to get through the tropics. At the 
end of April and beginning of May the temperature of the water 
began to rise, and many of the ova died on the point of hatching, a 
large number with the head of the fish protruding. On the 8th of 
May Mr. Ramsbottom, much against his will, was compelled to enter 
the ice-house to procure blocks of ice, which he placed in the deck- 
tank, thus reducing the temperature of the water. After using a 
considerable portion of ice, Mr. Ramsbottom came upon the deal box 
which had been placed in the ice-house, the lid being broken by the 
rolling about amongst the ice. Lifting out some of the moss, Mr. 
Ramsbottom thought the ova looked healthy, and procured a vessel 
of clean water and placed ova and moss together init. To his utter 
astonishment he found nineteen living and healthy ova, which he 
carefully transferred to the trays in the suspended apparatus. 
On the 17th of May the ice was finished; on the same day the 
temperature of the water rose to 65°, and the last of the ova died, 
seventy-four days from the commencement of the voyage, and eighty- 
eight days from the taking of the spawn from thefish. Towards the 
end of April from three to six of the ova were hatched per day ; and 
thirty of those hatched appeared in perfect health; one lived ten 
days. Theovataken from the deal box lived nine hours longer than 
any of the others, and withstood a higher temperature. 
Taking into consideration the pertmacity with which a portion of 
the ova retained life for seventy-four days in spite of the disastrous 
circumstances to which they were subjected during this voyage, the 
Tasmanian Salmon Commissioners felt certain that the ova could be 
introduced, and made a strong appeal to the Government of the 
Colony to repeat the experiment. Upon receiving Mr. Ramsbot- 
tom’s report, they decided upon sending him to England expressly 
to try the experiment of packing ova in ice with a view of retarding 
their development; and this experiment was accordingly tried in 
London under the direction of Mr. Youl during the winter of 1862 
and 1863. 
The wonderful success of that trial, showing that ova may be 
