206 Transactions.— Zoology. 
By way of explanation of what may be deemed interference with the 
work to which many able minds and hands are devoted, I must premise 
that I have had the honour of being early and much connected with the 
artificial propagation of salmon. I believe all who have ever felt interest 
enough to enquire into the natural history of this fish, and keep in mind 
the facts now admitted as the singular points of its development and growth, 
have heard of the great salmon-breeding establishment at Stormontfield on 
the Tay, and many are, no doubt, quite familiar with the plans and details 
of it. The Stormontfield Salmon Works were designed in the latter end of 
1858, by Mr. P. D. Brown, M. Inst. C.E., of whom I was then a pupil. I 
was honoured with a large share in the arrangement and design, and was 
entrusted with the whole of the details and supervision of the contracts. 
These works have been often described, and their results debated. Savants 
from many countries have visited them, conversed with the careful and in- 
telligent Superintendent, Mr. Peter Marshall, widely known as “ Peter of 
the Pools,” and the results of these observations have been given to the 
world of science year by year. But to one who had the interests and 
anxiety inseparable from the execution and working of so novel an under- 
taking, the opinions, deductions, and criticism of naturalists had an interest 
different from that with which the public in general could receive them ; 
and now, on reviewing the doings in the way of introduction and acclima- 
tization in the Australian and New Zealand Colonies, carried on during the 
past twelve years, with as yet but partial success, I am led to the conviction 
that the subject is by no means a very difficult one, and that, if a truly 
Colonial attempt is made, with proper arrangements, the result will be 
thoroughly successful. 
An important point, bearing on the transit of the ova, was observed 
during the first winter’s incubation at Stormontfield, and is, I find, not 
generally known. This is, the possibility of freezing the ova solid with the 
water for considerable periods without destruction to their vitality ; and 
another well-known fact, on which I am sure the whole success of the accli- 
matization depends, has, in the recent venture in the Waikato and Thames 
—from the unexpected nature of the case—necessarily been dispensed with, 
I refer to the necessity of keeping the young fish for one or two years safely 
in streams and ponds. Regarding the first point above mentioned, I wish 
to guard against holding it as absolutely proved, beyond the extent to which 
my own observation went ; and I am not aware of having observed any 
public notice of the facts, which are these -—In the design of the works it 
was foreseen that the shallow water in the hatching-boxes, would be, if un- 
protected, frozen solid in winter, and it was assumed that such an event 
would destroy all chances of incubation. With this in view preparations 
