I20 REPORT 0¥ THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



All of the mascalonge hatching is done at Chautauqua Lake. The eggs have 

 always been hatched, and very successfully, in double wire screen bo.xes that are sunk 

 from one to four feet under the surface of the water. Mascalonge have never been 

 raised from the fry stage artificially; but I firmly believe that they can be raised to 

 fingerlings, and with your permission I would be pleased to make some experiments in 

 this direction the coming season. 



The output of mascalonge fry for the year was 1,815,000. More and better 

 protection of the mascalonge is greatly needed at Chautauqua Lake. All spearing 

 through the ice should be stopped. 



Black bass have never been hatched artificially. The old methods of netting the 

 adult bass from some favorable point and sending out a very few on each application 

 is a very good but very expensive method, the workings of which are not at all 

 satisfactory to people living in the vicinity where the netting is done. Shorten up 

 the open season .so as to cover the spawning season fully, and the bass themselves will 

 do the proper stocking. 



This year we captured with nets at Three Mile Bay, Jefiferson county, and dis- 

 tributed, on applications from different parts of the State, 2,000 adult small mouth 

 black bass. 



During the summer of 1896 I was instructed by Mr. Babcock to make an exam- 

 ination and report as to the number and kind of whitefish found in Canandaigua Lake, 

 with the view of taking whitefish eggs there, if they were to be found in suflicient 

 quantities. Several specimens were secured and identified by Dr. Bean, who pro- 

 nounced them the Labrador whitefish (Coregoims labmdoriciis), one of the best 

 whitefish found in this country, and I feel very confident that we will be enabled to 

 take a large number of eggs there the coming fall and winter. If so, it will be some- 

 thing new in the history of the Fish Commission of the State of New York. The 

 whitefish eggs have never before been taken from any of our inland lakes, but men 

 have always been sent to Lake Michigan and the east end of Lake Ontario to secure 

 the stock, where it is secured under great expense and uncertainty. 



Respectfully submitted, 



James Annin, Jr., 



Snpcyiiite)idcnt of Hatclieries. 



