J. PISCICULTURE AND THE FISHERIES. 445 



In 1872 there were worked up at this establishment 13,800 

 sturgeon, averaging fifty pounds each, at a cost of a little 

 over a dollar apiece, ten or twelve men being employed dur- 

 ing the fishing season. The smoked meat is sent to the 

 South and Southwest, where there is a large demand for it. 

 The oil is used in tanning; the greater portion of the isinglass 

 is employed by brewers and wine manufacturers for purposes 

 of clarification ; and the caviar is shipped to Germany, where 

 it competes well with the genuine Russian article. In addi- 

 tion to the smoked sturgeon, they also put up a very excel- 

 lent quality of smoked whitefish and lake herring. 



PECULIARITIES OF REPRODUCTION OF CALIFORNIA SALMON. 



The inquiries of Mr. Livingston Stone, made under the di- 

 rection of Professor Baird, United States Commissioner of 

 Fish and Fisheries, in relation to the salmon of California, 

 have revealed a very remarkable difference in the eggs of 

 that species as compared with those of the true Salmo salar 

 of the Eastern States. The most noticeable fact is their rel- 

 atively small number, the former having 700 to the pound 

 instead of 1000. The eggs are, however, appreciably larger 

 than those of the Atlantic coast, being almost equal in size 

 to a common whortleberry. Owing probably to the higher 

 temperature of the water, or to other causes, the develop- 

 ment is much more rapid, since the eye spots are visible in 

 the eggs within nineteen days after impregnation, and they 

 begin to hatch in twenty-four days afterward, making a to- 

 tal of only forty-three days as the period of incubation. 



The hatching water varied in temperature from 55 to 65 

 and even 70 every day, so that it is difficult to say what is 

 the average temperature for the hatching period ; but Mr. 

 Stone estimates this at 58 to 60. Fourteen hours out of 

 the twenty- four namely, from 6 o'clock P.M. to 8 o'clock 

 A.M. the water averaged nearly 55. 



The eggs after spawning were treated according to the 

 dry method of impregnation, and the experiments were suc- 

 cessful in nearly every instance. 



Another curious fact noticed by Mr. Stone was the entire 

 absence of female grilse, all of the great number observed on 

 the M'Cloud River being males ; and, indeed, he remarks 

 that he lias never seen a female grilse elsewhere, although 



