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Show 18 MR. MORTON ALLPORT ON THE [Jan. 13, moss was imbedded, at the suggestion of Mr. C. H. Moscrop, Manager of the Wenham-Lake Ice Company, London, as appears by a letter from that gentleman published in the ' Times' of the 13th ot July, 1863. The management during the voyage was intrusted to Mr. William Ramsbottom, who had been engaged in Melbourne and sent to England for the purpose. On the 4th of March, 1862, the ' Beautiful Star ' left London, and on the 8th was compelled, through stress of weather, to put back to the Downs ; in this short period from 6000 to 7000 of the ova died. On the 13th of March the • Beautiful Star' left the Downs ; aud on the 16th the filler-in of the screw propeller was carried away, which compelled her to put back to Scilly for repairs. The vessel left Scilly on the 24th of March, and encountered a furious gale in the Bay of Biscay on the 27th, during which time the ova were destroyed in vast numbers. Fine weather succeeded the gale; but it was manifest, from the delays already experienced and the bad sailing-qualities of the vessel, that the ice could not hold out even to get through the tropics. At the end of April and beginning of M a y the temperature of the water began to rise, and many of the ova died on the point of hatching, a large number with the head of the fish protruding. On the 8th of May Mr. Ramsbottom, much against his will, was compelled to enter the ice-house to procure blocks of ice, which he placed in the deck-tank, thus reducing the temperature of the water. After using a considerable portion of ice, Mr. Ramsbottom came upon the deal box which had been placed in the ice-house, the lid being broken by the rolling about amongst the ice. Lifting out some of the moss, Mr. Ramsbottom thought the ova looked healthy, and procured a vessel of clean water and placed ova and moss together in it. To his utter astonishment he found nineteen living and healthy ova, which he carefully transferred to the trays in the suspended apparatus. On the 17th of M a y the ice was finished ; on the same day the temperature of the water rose to 65°, and the last of the ova died, seventy-four days from the commencement of the voyage, and eighty-eight days from the taking of the spawn from the fish. Towards the end of April from three to six of the ova were hatched per day ; and thirty of those hatched appeared in perfect health; one lived ten days. The ova taken from the deal box lived nine hours longer than any of the others, and withstood a higher temperature. Taking into consideration the pertinacity with which a portion of the ova retained life for seventy-four days in spite of the disastrous circumstances to which they were subjected during this voyage, the Tasmanian Salmon Commissioners felt certain that the ova could be introduced, and made a strong appeal to the Government of the Colony to repeat tbe experiment. Upon receiving Mr. Ramsbot-tom's report, they decided upon sending him to England expressly to try the experiment of packing ova in ice with a view of retarding their development; and this experiment was accordingly tried in London under the direction of Mr. Youl during the winter of 1862 and 1863. The wonderful success of that trial, showing that ova may be |
