CALIFORNIAN SALMON OVA.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1053, 12 November 1877, Page 3

CALIFORNIAN SALMON OVA.

A consignment of 100,000 Californian salmon ova, from San Francisco, arrived at the f rounds of the Acclimatisation Society on aturday. They had been transferred from the mail steamer to the Eotorua at Auckland. The Eotorua left Auckland on Tuesday, and had cool weather all the way down till her arrival at Lyttelton on Saturday morning. The officers of the Eotorua were kindly careful to put fresh ice in the boxes every day, and the ova have arrived in admirable order and condition. On Saturday forenoon the treasurer of the society, Mr Jameson, and Mr S. C. Farr, the secretary, proceeded to the port to take delivery of the consignment. They were received by the captain of the Eotorua with the utmost kindness and •courtesy. The ova and ice boxes were transferred from the steamer to the railway station, where the stationmaeter, Mr Bradley, obligingly placed a truck at the entire disposal of the gentlemen in charge of the ova, which came on by the luggage train, and arrived in Ohristchurch at twelve o'clock. They were at once conveyed to the society's grounds, where, the hatching boxes being in perfect readiness, and the temperature of the day being suitable for the work, Mr Farr and the curator went on with the basiness of unpacking. The ova were contained in one large wooden box with double sides, hollow between, the tops of the sides next the lid being covered with zinc, or smooth roof iron. The style of packing was admirable, and far superior to that which we have seen adopted by either Mr Youl or |Mr Buckland in Scotland and England. Each layer of ova is placed between square pieces of clean common scrim with fresh ordinary moss, to the thickness of about two inches, above and below it. This simple arrangement keeps the ova entirely clean and pure, and renders the unpacking of them a matter of comparative ease. The mode of packing here described is to be recommended on account of its simplicity and its effectiveness as a means of preserving fish ova. The present shipment has, so far, been remarkably successful. When the box was opened the packing moss was found to retain all its natural freshness of smell, the eggs were pictures of healthiness, a very few of them indeed were dead or in a dying condition. In fact their lusty vitality was quite apparent, and on being transferred to the water they changed from a rich red to a lovely pinkish hue. Some embryos could be seen moving inside their transparent coverings, while a few still more rigorous, perhaps prematurely so, might be noticed in the act of wriggling out of their ahells. It may be mentioned that the Acclimatisation Society of Wellington has forwarded its consignment of ova received from the same aource, to Mr Johnson, of Troutdale Farm, Opawa. Mr Johnson conveyed hiß lot from port by the same train which brought the Society's to town. __^_____