BULLETIN OF Mil UNITED STATES PISH Commission. 315 



I04.-ARIIFICIAI. PROPAGATION OF ROCK1 INII AND EKLN. 



By E. R. IVOBNT. 



Most of the breeding rockfish thar are caught in seines are caught 

 here at my place, and the season for them is nearly over. We do not 

 get as many as we did some ten years ago, but I think they arc more 

 numerous than they were a few years since. This is to be accounted for 

 by there not being so many sturgeon nets fished on the spawning 

 grounds as formerly. The rock are not mature when we get them ; 

 hence our failure with them some nine years back. The only way to suc- 

 ceed is by putting the fish in a pond until mature, and then hatch tin- 

 eggs. I have a pond of half an acre within 60 feet of where the seine 

 is hauled. I placed a 60 pound fish in this pond on the 1st of May, a few 

 years ago, and by the J 1th of May it had passed the spawning time, thus 

 showing that when they make their appearance here they are within from 

 ten to fourteen days of spawning. We begin to get them uniformly 

 about the 12th of April, and they leave about the 1st of May; they 

 are not numerous, but a very few would make some millions of young. 

 The water could be let out of this pond in summer, and it could be made 

 of a uniform depth, and a trunk to lead from it to the bay, to furnish 

 fresh watei every tide; I do not think the expense would exceed $300. 

 I would put all the breeding fish we get in this pond, and then if 

 you would send your steamer here about the 1st of May and strip the 

 fish as they mature, you could make a success of hatching these fish. 

 The water is brackish in summer ; we use it for an ice pond only ; if it 

 had a trunk to it to furnish fresh water, 1 should this season put in both 

 male and female, and leave them there to see if they would breed nat 

 urally. If you would like to make this experiment the work should be 

 done in August, as there are rarely any tides at that time of the year to 

 interfere with the work. 



Eels. — I think I have solved the eel problem. Our fishermen opened 

 two just after they came out of the mud a few weeks since, and they 

 both had clear and distinct roe in them in two lobes; the eggs were 

 very small. At the same time, the flats here at low water, just at the 

 water's edge, when the sun shone warm, showed myriads of young eels, 

 not larger than a cambric needle. It is clear that they hibernate in the 

 winter to breed, the.roe forms and matures dining this period, and the 

 young are hatched just at the end of this period. Hence no roe is 

 found iu them during the summer and fall. Their migration in summer 

 to headwaters is for food ; their return in fall to salt water is for breed- 

 ing purposes. 



Odessa, Del., May 1. 1S85. 



