APPENDIX. 217 



bright, with scarcely a dead ovum in any of the 

 boxes. I then examined about twenty from each 

 box with a glass, and regret to say in many of them 

 could not find an impregnated ovum. There were, 

 however, about four boxes in which the Ova are 

 partially fecundated. The fish, although still very 

 backward, are good and healthy. The Ova since 

 then, except in the boxes mentioned (which I put 

 by themselves), have since gradually gone off, as is 

 usual with unimpregnated Ova. This morning I 

 again carefully examined the boxes, and in two 

 lots, containing about four thousand, I can only 

 see one or two fish — the rest of the Ova, when 

 looked at from above, having that unmistakable 

 ring-coloured spot. Of those in the boxes I men- 

 tioned as yours, no difficulty remains of ascertain- 

 ing their condition, as the fish are quite visible to 

 the naked eye. The cause of this want of impreg- 

 nation is to me a mystery, especially after the late 

 shipments of Ova from America : of two lots con- 

 taining 100,000, 1 could not find a hundred unfecun- 

 dated, and from one lot 40,000 have been turned 

 in the Outi, and from the other lot 26,000 in tribu- 

 taries of the same stream. The means used in 

 packing are very simple — 50,000 in one box, 2 ft. 

 square aind about 7 in. deep. There is first a bright 

 layer of moss, then some thin cotton net, then the 

 Ova, then another cotton net, the moss to lie so on 



