72 THE ACCLIMATlSATlOy 



lected, were screwed down as a precaution 

 against the possibility of communicating a 

 shock to the precious contents by the blows 

 of the hammer in driving nails, and when 

 one of the boxes of the shipment per screw 

 steamer Durham, which is now to be de- 

 scribed, was opened in Victoria, a nail was 

 found to have been used instead of a screw 

 in fastening the lid. If a mere coincidence, 

 it was a strange one indeed ; but the fact 

 is the whole of the eggs in that box, with 

 the exception of two or three, had long been 

 dead ! 



Nothing having come of Mr. Buckland's 

 shipment, the agent of the Otago Provincial 

 Government requested Mr. Youl to under- 

 take another in conjunction with that gen- 

 tleman, the cost of which was, by arrange- 

 ment, defrayed in equal proportions by the 

 New Zealand Government and Sir Samuel 

 Wilson, of Victoria, whose public spirit and 

 careful preparations for the proper treat- 

 ment of the ova in that colony merit warm 

 recognition from the Victorians. Mr. Youl 

 consented, on condition that he should 



