336
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
the waters, except to pass a few Acts of Parliament.
And while he did not mean to say that every pro-
prietor of a fishing should set up hatching apparatus,
yet he thought it was the duty of district boards to
do so, as also in the case of many proprietors, such as
some of those in the north, who possess a number of
valuable rivers. They might, by a small outlay, triple
the value of their fisheries by hatching 400,000 to
500,000 fish annually for each river. And after they
are hatched they would require to be kept and fed
until the young fish are able to swim about in search
of food for themselves. They could be turned into
the river at the end of three months after they had
been hatched. The only care necessary would be to
have that part of the river where the young fish are
to be turned in, very close netted, in order that the
river at that particular place, may be cleared of all the
pike and trout, which destroy the young salmon.
Having been put into the river at this early period of
life, they will be better able to take care of themselves
in after life, than those smolts that are reared in ponds
till they are 13 months, and many of them are two
years old before they assume the smolt dress, but must
then be turned into the river, and that without the
least knowledge of their enemies. Authorities differ
much as to the best age for turning out the young
fish. Some argue that they should be kept in the
ponds till they assume the smolt dress, others that
they should be turned out at once, that they may
graduate through their difficulties, and so learn to shift
for themselves. He had had no experience of his own,
but Mr. T. Ashworth had told him that he had given
up putting the young salmon into the ponds at his
Galway fishings in Ireland, on account of a water
beetle that destroyed larger quantities of the fish.

But supposing that a larger number were destroyed
by the early turning out of the young fish, double the
quantity could be hatched and turned into the river
at the end of three months for less money, as the ex-
pense of making ponds is saved, and also the expense
of feeding them for nearly two years. Within the
last 23 years, the price of salmon has risen from 7½d.
per lb. to 1s. 2d. per lb. Double the capital is em-
ployed in the capture of the greatly diminished
quantity now obtained; and it may safely be averred
that not one ova in 1000 deposited in our rivers ever
becomes an edible salmon-surely something can be
done to lessen this great waste. No doubt we have
been over-fishing our rivers, and shutting our eyes to
the consequences. For although nature has given
great reproductive powers to the salmon, they are
giving unmistakeable signs of decrease. Owing to the
demand and the diminished supply meeting each other,
we find the result in prices having advanced this
spring as high as 4s. per lb. Mr. Adam here gave an
interesting description of the process of depositing
the spawn by the male and female salmon, as wit-
nessed in our rivers. A great part of the ova is lost
through not being impregnated by the milt, and
through the voracity of fish devouring it, not exclud-
ing even the parent salmon. He then proceeded-

I may here mention what came under my own
notice in the River Don on the 23rd January. I saw
a spawning bed, with a number of dead eggs lying
about it. I went out on the 25th and made a
thorough examination of the spawn in this bed. I
had a man assisting me, and out of the thousands of
eggs that were deposited in that bed, we only found
six that had anything like the colour of vitality, and
these were not what I should have thought had the
living principle in them; but I was willing to try
them, and I placed them carefully in one of the
hatching-boxes by themselves, and they were only
two days there when they showed that they were
addled and white. In short, through one cause and
another, a large proportion of the ova are destroyed
or become useless. In artificial propagation this
great waste is all avoided. We can insure the milt
coming in contact with the ova.

Mr. Adam then described the process of impregna-
tion. The fish are caught by taking a sweep of the
net in the water, enclosing the fish in about a foot
depth of water, but not landing them. The marks
by which to judge of the ripeness of the fish were
described, and how to procure the ova and milt. He
had taken as many as 6,000 to 8,000 ova from a
female fish at one time. It can be done in two or
three minutes, and the fish is none the worse. The
ova being deposited is impregnated with the milt;
and as to those other remaining dangers during birth
and childhood, I can assure you there is much to be
done to protect them, and some careful watching is
required. They must be examined every morning to
see if any of the eggs are dead, and if so have them
removed, because a fungoid growth frequently attacks
the dead ova, which will spread rapidly, and agglu-
tinate a number together, completely destroying all
that the fungus attacks. During birth they often
require assistance, as you will frequently see the
head out of the shell, and they are unable to disengage
themselves; there they are, with the egg still round
their neck, and if not assisted they would die.
Dr. Keith called one day to see the young fish, and
there was one in the above condition. I asked the
doctor to assist the little fellow in making a decent
start in life. The doctor at first said he would not
do it, but I told him I had often done it myself, and
explained to him to press the point of the hair-pencil
at the back of the head, when he would see it jump
out, and leave him with the empty shell. At other
times they are able to get their head and tail out of
the shell, but are unable to disengage the shell from
the umbilical vesicle or bag-like appendage, in which
is contained its nourishment for some weeks.

• • • • After it has become a distinct life, the
        time of its bursting the shell will entirely depend on
        the temperature of the water employed in the hatching
        of them. They may be hatched in forty days, but
        they will be very sickly, and I would much prefer
        them being over a hundred days before they burst
        the shell. When deposited in the river they are
        from 100 to 140 days, according as the weather is
        mild or otherwise. Not only does temperature affect
        the eggs, but also the young fish. If the thermometer
        marks 55 degrees, the young fish will soon die;
        anything above 50 degrees is weakening for them.

The Hatching Boxes.

The boxes may be made of wood or slate, with a
small stream of water which shall be running day
and night. In the apparatus I have erected at Fish
Street, I have thirteen boxes placed side by side, each
one having a fall of five inches from the one
immediately above it. This fall serves to aerate the
water as it passes from one box to another. I
obtained some gravel from the Bay of Nigg, and had
it thoroughly boiled for hours, to make sure of
destroying all seeds of vegetation, and also the eggs
of such creatures as might eat the spawn. The
boiled gravel is then spread in the boxes, which are
about 3 feet long by 8 inches broad, to the depth of
about 2 inches. I then turned the water on to make
sure that all the boxes were perfectly adjusted,
having a uniform flow of water of about three inches
in depth flowing over them. I had next to get the
eggs removed from the river side to where the
apparatus was erected, and the best way was by
carrying them in pails, with as much water about
them as would keep them from injuring one another;
and some care was necessary when we had nearly
three miles to carry them. Of course, you don't
suppose that I counted all the 36,000 ova; I only