74 FISH CULTUKE. 



the succeeding winter, prepared to send out a large 

 stock of salmon ova packed in ice. Having obtained 

 tlie necessary space in the Norfolk, a fine clipper ship 

 belonging to Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons, who 

 gave Mr. Youl every possible assistance, Mr. Youl 

 succeeded in depositing in the hold of the vessel 

 about ten tons of ice ; and in the heart of this mass 

 were deposited the boxes of ova. The boxes were 

 about two feet long, and were drilled full of holes, to 

 admit air, and so that the drip from the ice could 

 find its way to the moss within, and keep up the 

 moisture. Each box was filled with wet moss and 

 ova in layers, and was then convpletely surrounded 

 with ice, the ova heing deposited within three days of 

 its being taken from the parent fish. The common 

 belief has been that ova would not bear transport of 

 any very disturbing kind until the eye of the em- 

 bryo was visible within the egg. This doctrine is 

 pow exploded. It is true that when deposited in 

 water, after some days, a very slight disturbance kills 

 the ova ; but I conclude that the facility of destruc- 

 tion in this way is very greatly lessened by the 

 lowering of the temperature, and rendering of the 

 vitality, and consequently of the nervous system, in 

 the embryo less active. I imagine that the faculties 

 are in a sort of trance, equivalent somewhat to the 



