102 
THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
by Mr. Prank Buckland. I picked out the ova that 
appeared healthy, and counted the whole of the ova in 
these two boxes, and found that only 270 ova remained 
showing any signs of vitality, out of a total of about 1,500. 
On the other box being opened I was delighted to find 
the ova bright, transparent, and of a fine pink colour. I 
could only find four dead ova, and did not further disturb 
the box. These ova were much larger, approaching in this 
respect to the Californian ova, and had evidently been 
taken at the right time from a “ripe” fish in the best 
condition. The other two boxes contained smaller-sized 
ova, of a paler colour and more irregular in form, being in 
many instances oval-shaped, and wanting in the bright look 
of healthy ova. Their appearance reminded me forcibly of 
my unfortunate shipment by the Durham, from which only 
five fish were hatched. 
It may be remarked, that I should not “ look a gift horse 
in the mouth,” but it is only at the end of a long voyage, 
that defects in the mode of sending fish ova can be seen and 
pointed out ; and it is for the benefit of all who are interested 
in pisciculture, that the actual facts should be made known, 
so that errors may be discovered and avoided in future. 
Whether the American pisciculturists are more experienced, 
or the American salmon ova are less delicate, there is no 
doubt that the Americans have been more successful in 
their shipments of ova, and that our English friends may 
learn something from them as to the modus operandi , which 
has given such satisfactory results. Erom the Californian 
ova being usually on the point of hatching on their reaching 
here, it is evident that the hatching process is advanced to 
a certain stage before they are shipped, which enables them 
to stand the voyage better, and gives the opportunity of 
rejecting before shipment any eggs which may perish or 
remain unimpregnated. It is my opinion that until this 
