ACCLIMATISATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1241, 11 September 1875, Page 17

ACCLIMATISATION.

Mr Frank Buckland has been writing to the limes on the subject of the failure of the shipment from Glasgow to the ±Huff. Mr Buckland's letter appears in tv 3o£ July 9th - He reminds the public that he had carried out the shipment of the ova, and takes the responsibility " up to the time that the eggs, snugly nestling in sphagnum moss-filled boxes, were aurrounded by huge blocks of ice, in a giaantic ease in the hold of the ship Timaru. Having," he says, "held an inquest with the evidence of the New Zealand authorities before me, I candidly confess that I cannot put my finger upon the exact reason why or when the germ of embryonic life ceased to exist in the egg 3. As it is of no avail to ahed tears over a basket of broken hen's eggs lying smashed upon the pavement, so is it useless to lament over deceased salmon eggs. Rest assured, however, that Iby no means acknowledge myself defeated either by the salmon or its eggs. With the permission of the New Zealand authorities, I will at my own cost collect and send out a fresh lot of salmon pggs next Christmas. This time I shall endeavour to send them out by the swiftest steamer available. I trust, therefore, that the attempt to salmonise New Zealand has been delayed but one year. The trout now in Australia aad New Zealand are all descended from eggs collected by Mr Francis Francis and myself, and packed by Mr Youl. Trout, like sheep, are now established at the Antipodes, and I shall not rest until salmo salar joins his first-cousin salmo fario in these far-distant regions. This must be done by consignments of more or less magnitude repeated every year : and I trußt to be able to use every effort to solve the problem. This task is most difficult;, and therefore, to Englishmen, both at home and in the Colonies, worthy of attack, and, we hope, ultimate victory."