TELEOSTEI 195 



In spite of all the care exercised, however, the experiment was 

 unsuccessful. 



The next attempt was made by the Provincial Government of 

 Otago which took action in 1867, with the result that 100,000 ova 

 were placed on board the 'Celestial Queen' in January, 1868. Most 

 of these were from the River Tay, but some came from the Severn. 

 The ship reached Port Chalmers on 4th May, and the 300 boxes of 

 eggs were at once sent down to the Waiwera Ponds at Kaihiku, which 

 had been specially prepared for them. The Waiwera is a tributary 

 of the Clutha. In 77 of the boxes all the eggs were dead, but out of 

 the remaining 223 boxes about 8000 healthy eggs were taken. On- 

 20th May a flood filled the boxes with mud covering the eggs just 

 as hatching seemed about to begin. On 28th May some began to hatch 

 out, and in a few days, Mr Dawbin, the curator, had between 500 and 

 600 young fish. In his report he says : 



" In about ten or twelve weeks all of the fish had made their way into the 

 tank at the end of the shed and thence dropped into the feeding pond. 

 It was some time before they began to show again, and although I supplied 

 them with plenty of food I am inclined to believe that they mostly lived 

 on the natural food in the water. It was not very long before two or three 

 began to appear round the edge of the pond, grown wonderfully ; and after 

 a time, by regular feeding, I could collect little mobs of them at every 

 corner of the pond. I have now fish five, six, and, I believe, one or two 

 seven or eight inches long, and thick in proportion, which in a few months 

 will be ready to go to sea" (this was written on 31st May, 1869), "and if 

 they return safely it might be possible to get ova from them and hatch 

 fish enough to stock a river well. I have only seen three dead since they 

 went into the ponds, which, however, are so large and deep that I am not 

 able to keep so accurate an account of them as I should like. The size and 

 depth of the ponds, however, is advantageous in this respect, that the 

 fish are kept supplied with abundance of natural food. The water of the 

 Waiwera, like, I have no doubt, that of all the New Zealand rivers, seems 

 to be admirably adapted for salmon, but the river itself I do not consider 

 good for breeding. The bottom is rocky^ and although there are said to be 

 gravel banks high up, I should be afraid of the floods, which here occur 

 in the winter and spring. The supply of food in the river is most abundant." 



A small lot of these ova (ten boxes) were hatched out in Mr 

 Duncan's ponds on the Leith, just about the mill, but I can find 

 no record of what was done with the fry. They probably escaped into 

 the Otago Harbour^. 



^ "In an article in the Field of Jan. 26, 1878, we are told that there were 500 

 young salmon fry in the ponds out of the ' Celestial Queen' shipment. When they 

 were fifteen months old, and ranged from 12 to 15 in. long, the services of Mr 

 Dawbin were dispensed with by the commissioners, they having appointed a gentle- 

 man who seems to have had some influence with the Government, and on whose 

 land the ponds were situated, but who was totally ignorant of the treatment the 



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