OF THE 8ALM0NIBM. 29 



purpose by the late Mr. Edward Wilson, 

 then president of the Acclimatisation Society 

 of Victoria, who had from the first evinced 

 the utmost interest and activity in every- 

 thing connected with the subject, and had 

 expressed his confidence in Mr. Youl's 

 ultimate success. 



The first act in the drama, then, had been 

 brought to a successful conclusion, and in 

 April, 1864, living salmon and trout ova 

 were on their way to the breeding ponds on 

 the Plenty river in Tasmania. They were 

 taken as fast as steam could bear them to 

 the head waters of the Derwent, and the 

 boxes were there packed in cases wrapped 

 in blankets with part of the remaining ice, 

 slung on bamboo poles, and carried by a 

 force of forty bearers over four miles of 

 rough country to the nursery provided for 

 these interesting colonists. The Salmon 

 Commissioners had prepared troughs with 

 gravel at the bottom, and the layers of moss 

 being gently taken from the boxes and laid 

 in the troughs, the flowing water soon lifted 

 the ova, and deposited them on the gravel. 



