TELEOSTEI 187 



vessel called in at Plymouth, where Dr Williamson had secured about 

 60,000 ova adhering to glass plates. These were duly placed in the 

 apparatus, and the voyage was commenced on 12th January. A fairly 

 uniform temperature of 35°'5 Fahr. was maintained. On 24th January 

 when the equator was crossed the ova were fairly clean, and the 

 outline of the embryo could be easily distinguished. Some dirty 

 water got into the boxes at Cape Town, and the sediment was removed 

 from the eggs by means of a camel hair brush. By this time the chord 

 and eyes were visible in all the live eggs. On the 6th February the plates 

 were still in very fair condition, and then a mass of rust and sediment 

 was forced through the pipes, and the eggs were thickly coated with 

 sediment. The experiment was abandoned on 14th February when all 

 the ova were dead owing to the state of the water. The ova were 

 fertilised on loth January. The majority contained live embryos on 

 6th February, 27 days after fertilisation, and some still contained 

 live embryos on 12th February, 33 days after being fertilised. None 

 of the ova hatched out. 



The full report is worth studying, and it conveys a good idea of 

 some of the difficulties encountered in this department of acclimatisa- 

 tion work. 



Family Salmonid^ 



The rivers and lakes of New Zealand contained originally a poor 

 and rather sparse fish-fauna. It consisted of the grayling {Prototroctes 

 oxyrhynchus), found mostly in clear rapid rivers, and a fine sporting 

 fish; the smelt (Reptropinna richardsoni), common in rivers and lakes; 

 several species of Galaxias, a mud-fish {Neochanna apoda), only found 

 in the west coast rivers of both islands, two species of eel (Anguilla) 

 and a lamprey {Geotria chilensis). 



The kokopu, a name corrupted in the south of the South Island 

 to cock-a-buUy {Galaxias kokopu), was sometimes popularly called 

 trout; it is a fat, sluggish fish which lurks under logs and stones, 

 furnishes no sport, and is not particularly good to eat. The fish known 

 as the minnow {Galaxias attenuatus) is, as its name implies, a small 

 fish. According to the late Professor Powell, "White-bait is the fry 

 of this species," but the facts want working out^. 



The common eel {Anguilla aucklandii) is always with us, and is a 

 very valuable food-fish, if people only knew it. The lamprey makes 

 an annual visitation up the rivers in the spring months, usually about 

 October. 



^ In an interesting article on " Some Trout Fishing in New Zealand," which 

 appeared in Blackwood's Magazine for March, 1918, pp. 365-77, Mr A. R. Chaytor 

 states that New Zealand white-bait is the larval stage of the common eel. Anyone 

 who has looked into the question of the development of the Anguillidae knows that 

 this is a quite mistaken idea. 



