THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
101 
small scale, whether the English salmon could be success- 
fully hatched and reared in Victorian waters, and I tele- 
graphed to Sir George Grey as follows : — “ Can you spare 
3,000 salmon ova, ex Chimborazo , for experiment here ? 
Will pay cost.” The reply came promptly to the following 
effect: — “You can take 3,000 salmon ova from Chimborazo. 
We cannot accept payment.” This very generous offer 
on behalf of the New Zealand Government, I at once 
determined to accept, although as I had joined with them 
in half the cost of a previous shipment by the Durham , I 
expected that my present request would have been granted 
on the same arrangement, of my paying a proportionate 
part of the cost of the shipment. On the arrival of the 
Chimborazo , I found that the boxes containing the ova 
were carefully packed in the icehouse beneath the ice, and 
that between two and three feet of ice still remained over 
them. The total number of ova shipped was about 50,000 
and they were packed in 55 boxes. There was also a box 
of the ova of the common trout. On the ice being removed 
the boxes were handed up, and the lids of some of them 
having been damaged, Mr. Howard, who came over from 
New Zealand, to take charge of the ova on their tranship- 
ment into the Alhambra , examined the eggs by lifting up 
the moss covering them, and it was at once evident, that 
the great bulk of those in four of the boxes so examined, 
had perished, as very few healthy ova could be seen. He 
handed over to me three other boxes, wrth the remark 
that he did not think they were worth taking away. I had 
them placed in a larger box with ice above them, and took 
them direct to the ice- works, where I opened them in the 
ice-room, at a temperature of 32 deg. The boxes were 
differently packed ; one with a Y on it, was packed by 
Mr. A. Youl, and had, in addition to the moss, a layer of 
charcoal at the bottom. The other two had been packed 
