THE SALMON OVA BY THE TIMARU.

Evening Star, Issue 3808, 8 May 1875, Page 2

THE SALMON OVA BY THE TIMARU.

(By Teleqbaph.)

mi.., . Wellington. May 7. The following passage m a private letter from Mr James A Youl to Dr W. L. Bullet, has reference to the shipment of salmon ova per Thmani; - I enclose a slip cut out of the Times giving an account of the shipment of salmon ova from Glasgow to Otago, made bv Mr Buckland. You will notice the account states that the ova were frozen ; if so they will be all killed before starting, but I believe Mr Buckland is too wise and experienced to freeze them- I pointed out to him «o long ago as 1863 that to freeze salmon ova was to kill them, and it is no easy matter to accomplish. Certainly they would not be frozen by placing them in moss in i oxes, and the boxes surrounded with ice. To freeze the eggs they would have to bo subjected to some intense cold produced by freezing powders, such as would freeze water into ice, or by exposing them to a temperature m the air of 20 below freezing point, or 32 Fahrenheit. You will notice in the extract « j * ova on the voyage wilt be neither dead nor ‘ alive.’ If this be true, they will remain for ever in the same state. Iwil be anxious to know how the shipment will turn out on arrival. Mr Buckland has often been down to the ships when I have been packing, and has seen all I have done, «nd I have concealed nothing from him. On this occasion ho has never communicated to me anything, nor did I know he was at work until I saw the extract enclosed. He has packed the eggs somewhat differently from the plan I adopted, which may prove an improvement, and yet it is scarcely possible to be better than many of the boxes I packed. Only think of the three boxes of brown trout ova I packed myself, from which all the trout in Australia and New Zealand are descended. 1 * The letter is dated January 11.