20 MR. MORTON ALLPORT ON THE (Jan. 13, 
moved by Mr. Ramsbottom with fear and trembling ; but, to his great 
satisfaction, a large number of the imbedded ova were found to be 
alive. Eleven of the small boxes were then left in Melbourne; and 
the remaining 170 were placed on board Her Majesty’s colonial 
steam-ship ‘ Victoria,’ in large open packing-cases with holes drilled 
in the bottoms. Broken ice was placed on the tops of the small 
boxes in each packing-case, larger ice was piled on the cases, and the 
whole were then covered with bags of sawdust and blankets; about 
half the ice had melted during the voyage. On the 17th of April 
the ‘ Victoria’ left Melbourne, and arrived at Hobart Town on the 
20th. The packing-cases and ice (of which latter there still re- 
mained more than ten tons) were then carefully placed on a barge 
packed as before, and were towed to New Norfolk, twenty miles 
further up the Derwent than Hobart Town, by the steamer ‘ Emu,’ 
which was detained till a late hour on the night of the 20th on pur- 
pose. From New Norfolk the barge was towed by boats to the falls 
three miles further up the river on the morning of the 21st; and 
the packing-cases were then landed and slung on stout poles and 
carried by hand to the ponds already prepared at the river “ Plenty,” 
three miles further up. The remaining ice was transferred to the 
ponds in carts, the contents of each being well covered with straw. 
The first batch of cases arrived at the ponds about the middle of the 
day on Thursday the 21st of April, 1864, ninety days after the 
placing of the ova on board the ‘ Norfolk.’ 
On their arrival, Mr. Ramsbottom immediately proceeded to pre- 
pare the grayel-beds for the reception of the ova. A slight descrip- 
tion of the ponds is here necessary. These ponds are twenty-six 
miles from Hobart Town, and were arranged in accordance with 
designs brought from the Stormontfield establishment on the Tay. 
Water is led from the river Plenty by a race to a small plot of 
erass-land above flood-mark. Sluices are placed on this race to 
regulate the supply of water. From the main race a smaller one 
leads directly into the clearing-pond, which is circular, about five 
feet deep, and forty feet in diameter. Thence the water is led by 
two covered wooden troughs into an open wooden trough at right 
angles with the covered troughs. From the open wooden trough 
small sluices let off the water in any quantity desired directly into 
the gravel hatching-beds. These consist of wooden boxes about 
5 feet long by 2 feet wide. There are twelve of them, arranged in 
four rows. The water passes with a slight fall into the upper 
end of the first box in each row, over the lower end of that box 
into the upper end of the second box, and so on to the lowest, 
where the water from each row passes over a series of shallow 
gravelly pools to a pond about 120 yards long and 40 feet wide, 
varying in depth from 2 to 9 feet. All the surplus water from the 
clearing-pond also finds its way into this larger pond by a covered 
drain, ensuring a permanent supply of clear cool water. All the 
entrances to and exits from the pond and hatching-beds are care- 
fully guarded by covering them with perforated zine. As the day 
on which the first of the ova arrived at the Plenty was warm, with a 
