276 Transactions. — Zoology. 



for the London market, and why should she not, if intense and continuous 

 cold only suspended the life of the fish, hear away to old England slahs of 

 ■ice holding in their rigid embrace numerous specimens of fish hitherto 

 unknown in that land, which only required to be thawed in its rivers that 

 there they might live and thrive ! Why put ourselves to the great trouble, 

 anxiety and expense, of bringing out to our New Zealand home ova that 

 have hitherto proved to be dainty morsels for the discriminating natives of 

 our waters ! Could life be suspended, then fish of all kinds, and from all 

 countries, and arrived at a vigorous maturity, could, when allowed to recover 

 from their prolonged sleep, do successful battle with eels and other foes in 

 asserting their rightful claim to a fair share of all the good things in our 

 rivers. It would be good for us, if experience could demonstrate that such 

 a procedure must necessarily prove successful if conducted with ordinary 

 care. Our fish markets, that are at present distinguished by their absence, 

 would then become realities and sources of comfortable incomes for energetic 

 and enterprising men, and the gentle disciples of Izaak Walton would find 

 abundant employment for their rods and tackle that are at present laid re- 

 gretfully aside. 



It is my duty to place before you a very brief statement of the steps that 

 have been taken to prove, or to disprove, that fishes can return to life and 

 energy after imprisonment in ice. 



Captain Greenstreet, of the Mataura, and his enthusiastic chief officer, 

 cordially helped me to make the best use I could of the freezing chamber in 

 their vessel, and in it were placed two pannikins, the one containing a salt- 

 water fish in salt water, the other a goldfish in fresh. At the same time 

 (10 a.m.) two other pannikins were placed in the " shoot," the coldest part 

 of the freezing apparatus, the one containing a salt-water fish, and the other 

 not a gold- but a silverfish. The water in these vessels was at the ordinary 

 temperature. The cold in the shoot being many degrees below zero. F., it 

 did not take long to convert the water into ice, and at the end of an hour 

 and a half, I was satisfied that all the water — the salt and the fresh — had 

 become solid, and that the two fishes were as hard and firm as the sheep 

 that were hanging in the freezing chamber. Both pannikins were then 

 removed and placed in two tubs filled with water at the ordinary tem- 

 perature — the one containing salt water for the salt-water fish, the 

 other fresh for the silver one. In a short time the heat of the 

 water in the tubs found its way to the surface of the ice in contact 

 with the interior of the pannikins, and the blocks becoming in consequence 

 reduced in bulk the two parted, the former finding its way to the bottom, 

 the latter remaining at the surface. On examining these blocks of ice it 

 was observed that both fishes must have retired from the surface of the 



