486 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



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the outlet-gate to the pens at the spawning-shed. This contrivance, for 

 which we are indebted to Mr. Alfred Swazey, effected a great saving in 

 the labor of collecting the fish, and in the eggs, of which a good many 

 were formerly lost here when the fish had access to the gravelly bottom 

 of the brook. 



The arrangement of the hatching-house and apparatus has remained 

 as shown in the cuts of the previous report. 



In the mode of packing eggs for transportation, some change has 

 been made. The apparatus which received the p'reference the former 

 season consisted of tin boxes 5 or 6 inches in diameter and the same in 

 depth, in which the eggs were placed in alternate layers with damp 

 meadowt-moss, disks of mosquito-net or similar material being placed 

 above and beneath each layer of eggs to separate them from the moss 

 and facilitate unpacking, the tins to be inclosed in boxes of sawdust to 

 protect against frost. These tins have latterly been superseded by 

 wooden trays, which afford a more expeditious and economical mode of 

 packing. The trays mostly used have been 3 inches deep, and in 

 length and breadth either 24 inches by 18 or 18 by 12. The larger 

 size was found to be objectionable because it afforded room for the eggs 

 to get out of place by the slidiug of the mass of eggs and moss from 

 side to side, when, as is often the case in transport, the boxes are care- 

 lessly allowed to ride upon their sides. This was remedied by dividing 

 the trays by a partition in the middle ; and in the smaller trays no 

 serious trouble of that sort was experienced. The depth adopted was 

 found to be sufficient to admit three or four layers of eggs in moss, 

 separated, as before, by mosquito-net. "When filled, the trays were 

 placed in stacks, four or five deep, and secured together by strips of 

 wood tacked on the sides, making a rectangular package easily fitted 

 with an outside case and an intermediate space for sawdust. This 

 package, when all complete, ready for shipment, holds from 5,000 to 

 10,000 eggs per cubic foot, and is at once the cheapest and most com- 

 pact consistent with the safety of the eggs. 



2. — PURCHASE OF BREEDING-SALMON. 



The run of salmon in the Penobscot in 1873 was better than average, 

 though hardly so good as that of 1872. The weather prevailing in 

 June was very favorable, and the catch of the weirs from which I was 

 buying salmon was so large that the requisite number of breeders was 

 secured in a very short time. The work of collection began June 7 

 and closed June 21 ; in the intervening sixteen working-days, 650 sal- 

 mon were collected, being something over 40 per day. The best day's 

 work was on the 10th, when 105 salmon were received and placed in 

 the pond. 



In 1874, however, the weather and the supply of salmon were both 

 against us, and we were engaged from June 9 to July 21, including 



