200 Transactions.—Zoology. 
For the first four days many ova died, but others began to hatch, and 
this operation was completed in a fortnight. Only 15,000 ova, however, 
were estimated to be the result, so there could not have been the full number 
as supposed in the box. Of these, 2,000 were deformed and died, and the 
18,000 survivors were put into the Kakanui river in January, 1878, being 
then very vigorous, and about 24 inches long each. Nothing has been seen 
or heard of them since. 
The whitefish (Coregonus albus) were brought from San Francisco by the 
New Zealand Government, and on 21st February, 1878, two boxes were 
presented to our society, one to be handed to the Oamaru society if applied 
for. On opening one box at the Opoho ponds we found the ova all dead or 
hatched out, so the other box was opened to endeavour to save some few ova 
if not too late. There were many good eggs in this box, out of which we 
succeeded in hatching about 1,000 young whitefish. The two boxes were 
supposed to contain 50,000 eggs each, and on being opened I found the 
temperature of the moss 46° Fahr., of the water flowing from the creek into 
the hatching-house 54°, and of the water in the hatching-boxes themselves 
53°. (See table of temperatures in the Appendix.) The young fish were 
hatching out as the eggs were being put into the hatching-boxes, and came 
out in one day or two. On 19th March Mr. Deans started with the young 
fish for Lake Wanaka, but they all unfortunately died ere he got half way. 
Probably they were neither old enough nor strong enough to stand the 
journey. During hatching water varied from 49° to 57°, and when a week 
old the young fish were fed with blood. In the case of the last shipment 
sent us in January, 1880, we had the boxes conveyed straight from the Bluff 
to our hatching-boxes, near Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, on the 19th. 
The water used was from a cold spring, but no gravel was put in the boxes, 
which were covered over to exclude light, and an awning formed a roof for 
the hatching place. The ova were hatching when put into the water, which 
had a temperature of 48° to 52°, but none lived longer than thirty-six hours: 
Mr. Deans observed that some of the fish before they died appeared to have 
fungus, the tails getting quite white in appearance. So great was the mor 
tality that Mr. Deans turned them all out into Lake Wakatipu, part at 
Beach Bay and part at Half-way Bay, 21st January, 1880, but nothing more 
has been seen of them. The surface water of the lake had a temperature of 
about 56°. Dr. Black kindly made an analysis of the water of this spring 
used at Queenstown, also of Wakatipu and of Opoho water, with this 
result :-— 
Organic matter in solution. 
Rowell’s spring .. ae os ne as .. 1-1 grs. per gal. 
Wakatipu .. “a A rae ne oa Pagel, ” 
Ps re +s “. ws ox os 8 ” 
