BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 275 



Spencer F. Baird, the Commissioner of American Fisheries, for the 

 great trouble he has taken and the great liberality he has shown in 

 sending over such varied consignments of fish eggs. They arrived in 

 splendid condition, a fad which does high credit to those to whom the 

 packing of the eggs was intrusted. I must make one exception as to 

 the condition of the eggs when they arrived. This refers to a box con 

 taining ova of the rainbow-trout, which reached London last Saturday. 

 A number of these were dead on arrival, and others have been dying 

 off during the last few days ; but I hope some hundreds will be hatched 

 out. 



The hatching and rearing of these fish will be watched with great 

 interest ; but I think the question should be closely considered as to 

 whether the introduction of any of the above-named would really be 

 an advantage to our home waters. It inay be that in some places 

 where the fisheries at present are of little account they would thrive 

 and multiply, but I think that strict caution should be observed in in- 

 troducing these foreigners to our salmon and trout streams, and that 

 we must not be too sanguine of good results accruing therefrom. The 

 cross-breeding of fish should not be done at haphazard, and experiments 

 ought to be carried on with due discrimination. If we can improve on 

 our own salmon and trout (speaking generally), well and good ; but I 

 doubt it. 



79.-AIV ATTEMPT TO IMPREGNATE ARTIFICIALLY THE EGOS OF 



ACIPENSER STELLATl'S.* 



By IV. BOKODIN. 



In 1869 Mr. Owsjauikoff, member of the Russian Academy, made the 

 first attempt to impregnate artificially the roe of the sterlet, which at 

 the same time was the first attempt at the artificial impregnation of 

 ganoids, which for a loug time had baffled all experiments. It was, 

 therefore, to be hoped that success wouid also accompany similar ex- 

 periments with larger varieties of the Acipenser, such as Acipenser Stel- 

 la t us, A. guldenstadtii, and A. huso, which form the objects of extensive 

 fisheries in the Caspiau Sea and the rivers flowing into it. Experiments 

 must prove this, howeVer, and these are of special interest, because on 

 them would depend the practical application of fish-culture to these 

 kinds of fish. Thus far these experiments have 1 ot been made. It is 

 true that Max von dem Borne, in his "Fischzuclit," states that the Ameri- 

 can fish-culturists Seth Green and Marks, in 1875, made experiments 

 with the roe of Acipenser sturio in Hudson's Bay ; but the description of 



* "Ein Versuch kiinstlichet Befruchtung dea Ilogens den JSIemhausen." From the Deutsche 

 FisehereirZeitung, vol. viii, No. 14, Stettin, April 7, 1885. Translated from the Ger- 

 man by Herman Jacobson, 



