146 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



water farther up — that is, in the same zone as the sea trout (p. 140) — the maturing 

 fish commencing their spawning migration into fresh water as soon as the streams 

 warm to the required degree in spring. Temperature observations by the Massa- 

 chusetts Commission show that the first smelt appear on the spawning beds in 

 Weir River, a stream emptying into Boston Harbor, when the temperature of the 

 water rises to about 40° to 42°. About Massachusetts Bay this may take place 

 as early as the first or as late as the last week in March, depending on the forward- 

 ness of the season and on the particular stream in question. The chief production 

 of eggs is in temperatures of 50° to 57°, and spawning is completed there by about 

 the 10th or 15th of May, year in and year out. East of Portland smelt seldom 

 commence to run before April, to continue through May as just noted. In the 

 colder streams on the southern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence they do not 

 spawn until June, but along the southern New England coast south of Cape Cod, 

 on the other hand, they may commence as early as February. 



As a rule smelt do not journey far upstream. Many go only a few hundred 

 yards above tidewater, whether the stream be small or large, while some even 

 spawn in slightly brackish water, as in certain ponds back of barrier beaches (e. g., 

 Straits Pond, Cohasset, Mass.), but flooding with salt water, which sometimes 

 happens, kills the eggs. 



The eggs average 1.2 mm. (0.05 inch) in diameter and sink to the 

 bottom, where they stick in clusters to pebbles, to each other, or to any stick, 

 root, grass, or water weed they chance to touch. According to the Manual of 

 Fish Culture a female weighing as little as 2 ounces will produce between 40,000 

 and 50,000 eggs; 70,000 eggs have been taken from a fish iy 2 inches long. 63 The 

 eggs of the closely allied European smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) hatch in 8 to 27 days, 

 according to temperature. Probably the incubation period of the American fish 

 is the same, for smelt eggs are reported as hatching in 13 days at the Palmer 

 (Mass.) hatchery. There is no reason to suppose that the rate of growth of our 

 smelt differs much from that of the European (that is, to a length of \% to 2% 

 inches by the first autumn). 



The precise season when young smelt go down to the sea in the Gulf of Maine 

 streams is yet to be learned; probably early in summer. 



Most of the smelt evidently do not spawn until they have passed a winter, a 

 summer, and a second winter in salt water. 



The smelt has proved a favorable fish for artificial hatching and at present large 

 numbers of fry are so produced yearly in Massachusetts, the eggs being taken in 

 Weir River, just mentioned. It has proved possible to reestablish smelt by intro- 

 ducing the eggs or fry into streams from which it has been extirpated. For example, 

 good smelt fishing was reported in " Poorhouse Brook," Saugus, a tributary of Boston 

 Harbor, three years after the stream was stocked with eggs, and attempts on Long 

 Island have been similarly successful. It is the prevading opinion that smelt are 

 now increasing in Massachusetts. To maintain the stock is simply a question of 

 providing spawning grounds of sufficient extent or of making up for the lack of such 

 by artificial propagation. 



•» Rice. Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries of Maryland, 1878. 



