338 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



6. — EXPERIMENTS WITH A VIEW TO TRANSPORTING SHAD TO GERMANY. 



The failure of the German expedition the previous year induced a 

 careful series of experiments with reference to the conditions most favor- 

 able to sustaining shad-eggs or embryo-fish for a prolonged period in 

 transportation-vessels. The experiments made at Noank, Conn., the 

 previous summer, proved that there would be no hope in attempting to 

 inure the shad to sea- water so as to depend on fresh supplies of water 

 from the ocean after the steamer was under way. 



The first experiment begun this year was at Washington, D. C. Mr. 

 Fred Mather, who was one of the attendants on the shipment of shad 

 in the first German trip, was given charge of the work. He devised a 

 can holding about eight gallons, and having the form of a cylinder for 

 about two-thirds of its upper portion ; below this, the remaining third 

 had the form of a funnel. This was hung in gimbals, as it was intended 

 it should be on shipboard. The water-supply entered at the bottom 

 coming from a reservoir at a higher level, and flowed upward through a 

 screen of wire-cloth, which rested upon the line at the bottom of the cylin- 

 der and top of the funnel. Upon this were placed about 20,000 shad-eggs. 



For a day or two, they seemed to survive well, but soon an increasing 

 mortality was evident, and after four days the last one was dead. Mr. 

 Mather left Washington on June 11, and went to Point Pleasant, Pa., 

 on the Delaware Eiver, and began an experiment with a similar though 

 smaller apparatus, and with little success. 



An apparatus differing in being entirely of a funnel form and having 

 only the inlet-tube covered with wire-cloth,* w"as the suggestion of Mr. 

 Mather's assistant, Mr. Charles Bell, t This worked admirably, and 

 young shad were produced seemingly with all the success and facility 

 of the floating shad-boxes. 



In the meanwhile an experiment was begun by Mr. H. W. Welsher, 

 at the New York shad-hatching station on the Hudson River. His 

 attempt was to retard the development of the eggs in a case of flan- 

 nel screens, upon which they were placed. The screens, fitted with light 

 covers of the same material, slid into the case like drawers, one above 

 the other, in a series of ten or twelve. One of the sides of the case was 

 fitted on hinges as a door. Lumps of ice were placed in the upper 

 screen, the drippings from which supplied the necessary moisture to the 

 eggs. The temperature was moderated by means of the door. The de- 

 velopment of the eggs was retarded by a low temperature, so as to 

 hatch after six days and even ten, and seemed, when put into the 

 water, just before the release of the fish, to be in a healthy condi- 

 tion, and the fish when hatched seemed vigorous. 



Mr. Monroe A. Green was associated with Mr. Welsher just before it 

 was decided to make the attempt of a trip to Germany ; the announce- 

 ment of their readiness to attempt the work arriving in advance of that 

 from Mr. Mather, who was at the time experimenting on the Delaware. 



* See Apparatus for batching shad-ova while enroute to new waters, t Since deceased. 



