40 
FISH BREEDING PONDS. 
that Victoria should receive a fair share of the 
produce ; a promise which has been faithfully and 
amply performed. 
From the ova thus sent to Tasmania about 300 
young fish were obtained, and these formed the total 
stock of English trout there. 
The first ova and young fish received from Tasmania 
were lost — the ova, with the apparatus in which they 
were placed, near Sunbury, being carried away by an 
unusually high flood ; the young fish were lost owing 
to their care and management not being understood. 
The next supply of young fish were turned out, and 
have bred. With the later supplies, more especially 
during the last few years, better progress has been 
made ; but, no doubt, little has been done compared 
to what would have been the result had breeding 
ponds been constructed, as they shoul^ have been, at 
first. 
The supplies from Tasmania were distributed on 
arrival, either to local societies or to private individuals, 
or, in the case of young fish, direct into suitable 
streams, but each year, until the last, when the ponds 
were constructed, ova were retained by the Society and 
hatched at the Society’s gardens, in the Royal Park, at 
Melbourne, in a house and apparatus built for that 
purpose and supplied with water from the Yan Yean 
reservoir. The experience gained by this course was 
useful, but the result not always satisfactory ; one year 
the per centage of loss tirould not exceed 20, but 
in others there would scarcely be more than that per 
centage saved. This was attributable to the uncertain 
water supply, the distance the water had to travel 
through pipes, and the occasional rise in temperature. 
