BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 175 



with sliad ova, and in an liour's timo vroxa placed into backets and car- 

 ried to a small boat. They iinder\yent a journey of two miles, one-half 

 of which was in the open sound, the boat's course being in the troughs 

 of the waves. This seemed but another means of destruction that 

 awaited them, but they were unaffected throughout. The parent fish 

 weighed 57 pounds, and I pressed the eggs out as she lay upon the 

 beach. In this position considerable pressure was required. The eggs 

 were quite small, smaller than those of shad, and they possessed a 

 decided green color. When fertilized they became transparent, and in 

 the water could be seen only as small oily globules, which glistened 

 brightly both in solar and lamj) light. I measured the diameter of those 

 impregnated, somewhat rudely. I found them seven and a half diame- 

 ters to the inch. Finding the difference in the size of these and shad 

 eggs (which are eight diameters), I made an estimate of the number 

 taken. In a dipper which had been found to contain 40,000 of the latter 

 I measured the rock-tish eggs, estimating them at 30,000 to each dipper. 

 The contents of the seven pans, or in other words the eggs taken, 

 amounted to 700,000. They were placed into six shad cones, a smaller 

 number being placed in a floating box in the creek. 



I bought the mature fish, and on the morning of the 29th cut her 

 open and removed her ovaries. I removed with slight pressure an 

 additional quantity of more than a quart of eggs. To determine the 

 comparative bulk removed on the night preceding, I filled them at the 

 natural openings with water. I found that the difference between the 

 last bulk of eggs, just removed, and a bulk of water sufticient to fill the 

 ovaries was about as four to five, or, in other words, the eggs removed 

 for impregnation were to the eggs unused as one to four, and thereupon 

 I based the total contents at 3,000,000. 



It was not until the evening of the 29th that I believed the eggs 

 taken to be fertilized. Then I found that fully 90 per cent, were good, 

 the cone containing those im^jregnated with shad milt, however, being 

 very low in impregnation, perhaps as many as 5 to 6 i)er cent, being 

 good. At this stage they showed a less specific gravity than shad 

 eggs, rising to the surface with but a small current from below. Great 

 diftlculty arose in the development of this new feature, as the eggs 

 (trowded the screens above on all their surface. On the night of the 

 30th they commenced hatching. The fry immediately began to escaj^e 

 through the perforated screens, and pieces of cloth were bound over the 

 screens to arrest them. They soon clogged, and the water supply had 

 to be reduced proportionately to j)revent the cones from overflowing. 

 Within forty -two hours all the eggs were hatched, the fish being mostly 

 dead, owing to the reduction in volume of water. They were perfect 

 fish, clearly out of the eggs, and many quarts in bulk. Their bodies 

 were very small and the sack large proportionately. I removed about 

 -10,000 alive and placed them into the floating box, where about 10,000 

 additional ones had hatched. I kept them two days, but there was no 



