THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
73 
race laid with suitable gravel, and after the fish have 
spawned, shutting them off by a screen and taking the ova, 
which may be done by lowering the water. This is the 
plan which has been very successfully adopted by the 
Tasmanian Salmon Commissioners, at the salmon ponds at 
New Norfolk. 
The collecting of salmon eggs for shipment to Australia 
and New Zealand, is described by Frank Buckland, the 
celebrated pisciculturist, as one of the most difficult, and 
in fact dangerous, tasks that he has to undertake. It is 
at the coldest time of the year that the spawning takes 
place, and the necessary work when netting the rivers and 
manipulating the fish, with the thermometer below freezing 
point — sometimes up to the armpits in water — even if in a 
water-proof dress, is no easy or pleasant task, and requires 
an amount of enthusiasm in the cause of acclimatisation, 
and energy in carrying out the undertaking, that few men 
possess. To Mr. J. A. Youl, C.M.Gr., and to Mr. Buckland, 
the colonies owe a debt of gratitude for their exertions in 
the cause. To Mr. Youl is, I believe, due the honor of 
being the first to make the discovery, that the eggs of 
salmon and trout could be kept abve in ice, for a long 
enough period to enable them to reach the antipodes. 
And the first, and many subsequent shipments of 
salmon ova were collected and sent out by him, and 
under his personal care and supervision. Both he and 
Mr. Buckland have been unsparing in their labours, 
to achieve the desired object of stocking the waters 
of Australasia with the king of fish. By years of 
patient observation of facts, leading up to a final result, 
and hardships endured in packing boxes of ova in ice, 
with the thermometer far below freezing point, labours 
sustained by that enthusiasm which deadens the sense of 
pain, Mr. Youl did not even refrain, although his fingers 
