BULLETIN OF TIIE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 359 



that gives to the former an elevation of eight feet above the latter, thus 

 giving to the hatchery an ample volume and fall of water for hatching 

 purposes. 



THE TEOUT PONDS. 



These were originally six in number, and, though since found quite 

 insufficient to meet the requirements of the increased scale of operations, 

 they performed their service well at the time of their construction and 

 for several succeeding years. Since the supervision of the hatchery was 

 assumed by the United States Fish Commission, in 1880, the ponds have 

 undergone a thorough reconstruction. They have been greatly enlarged, 

 their sides planked and secured beyond all possibility of muskrat dep- 

 redations, their banks nicely ornamented with a coat of nature's green, 

 and tlteir capacity increased many fold. Entire new ponds have also 

 been built, and all are suitably provided with discharging flues and 

 gates for the control of the water. The bottom of each pond is made to 

 gradually slope so that the depth of the water is eighteen inches at the 

 head and four to five feet at the foot, this conformation being necessary 

 to tempt the breeders up into the shallow, rapid current of the raceways 

 to spawn. As is well known, however, the fish will sometimes deposit 

 their eggs in the gravel beds of the ponds themselves, and, to avoid 

 any loss which might be entailed by such an occurrence, the ponds set 

 apart for the use of the breeders are divided into two sections, the bot- 

 tom of the upper and more shallow section being tightly covered with 

 boards. Into this section the breeders are placed during the spawning 

 season, and are prevented from entering the lower part of the pond by 

 a temporary partition, which is removed when the spawning season is 

 over, the lower section being used simply as a receptacle for the fish as 

 fast as they are manipulated and the eggs secured. 



The uniformly cool temperature of spring water at all seasons of the 

 year causes these ponds to be as healthful to the various kinds of trout 

 as their ordinary haunts furnished by nature. Indeed, this fact, com- 

 bined with the abundant supply of artificial food, produces an average 

 maximum size that is not only unsurpassed, but absolutely unobtain- 

 able in many of the streams where the fish naturally flourish. 



I find that among communities having no direct commercial inter- 

 course with the large fisheries there prevails considerable skepticism 

 concerning the real benefit to be derived from the artificial propagation 

 of fish. The people who Live near the great fisheries have been con- 

 vinced of its value by the returns which they have actually realized 

 from the work of the states and the general government in restocking 

 the larger bodies of water with the best varieties of commercial fishes. 

 Those in the interior have also been indirectly benefited, but this they 

 are slow to realize. I therefore look with great hopefulness upon the 

 present attempts now making everywhere to introduce the trout and 

 other valuable species into such inland waters of the country as are 

 suitable to their nature. 



