APPENDIX. 183 



Tasmania, 22nd April, 1864, 

 My deae Youl, 



I congratulate you heartily on the success of 

 your grand Salmon experiment. The Ova have 

 arrived in Hobart Town alive ; and, at the time I 

 am writing, are probably in the ponds above New 

 Norfolk. We are all eating salmon in imagination, 

 and I trust that you will receive that acknowledg- 

 ment of your exertions to which a man is always 

 considered entitled by success. 



There has been an attempt on the part of the 

 Commissioners here — or some of them — ^to ascribe 

 the merit of the experiment with ice to young Eams- 

 bottom; but I have pointed out to the Colonial 

 Secretary, to Davies of the Mercury, and others, 

 the essential difference between his plan and yours. 

 Old Dr. Gaunt said to me the other day, " You see' 

 I was right after all." I told him that he was 

 entirely mistaken, for that his proposal had been 

 mooted by me in 1857 or 1858, and that Professor 

 Huxley had condemned it, and that it was not the 

 plan which you had adopted at all. He spluttered 

 and talked, but could not get over the poser which 

 I had put to him — that he wanted to bring the Ova 

 out frozen, which would not have left a single 

 ovum alive. 



Yours very truly, 



WILLIAM AECHEE, M.L.C. 



