550 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



hatching- about February 20. Mr. Milner, deputy United States com- 

 missioner, arrived at tliis place for the purpose of aiding me in packing 

 and sliipping a lot of the ova, which were then in an advanced stage of 

 incubation. We estimated from actual count that 66 per cent, were in 

 such an advanced state that they were secure from any further mor- 

 tality. We then shipped to San Francisco 216,000 in the most perfect 

 condition. 



'• About March 10 I received an order from the commissioner at Wash- 

 ington to send the same number again to the same place, which I should 

 have done, but from the fact that the eggs had become so far advanced 

 that I felt quite confident they could not be transported so great a dis- 

 tance successfully, and only sent 116,000, which I am most happy to 

 have heard arrived in excellent condition. Soon after this the weather 

 became much warmer and the ice all thawed from the pond, and by the 

 20th of the month the eggs then remaining in the troughs commenced 

 hatching. The water had then risen to a temperature of 45 degrees, 

 which sudden change caused the eggs to turn white, and soon all were 

 worthless. Quite a large number had already hatched out, and I 

 removed part of thefn to the same lake where Mr. George Clark and 

 myself had put in a large number the year before, and placed about 

 25,000 in a small lake at Olarkston Village. 



" This sudden change in the condition of these eggs I cannot account 

 for, only from the fact of the change in the temperature of the water at 

 this late stage of their development. I am fully salisfied that if the 

 ice had remained in the pond as late as the previous year 1 should not 

 have lost two per cent, from the time I made the last San Francisco 

 shii)ment. 



"This experience satisfied me that spring- water, although it may not 

 be used until it advances a long way down from its source, is not the 

 place to hatch white-fish. Although this pond was clear from ice March 

 15, the ice remained in our lakes in this region until May 1. 



" This species of eggs, and especially those not good and not perfectly 

 impregnated, placed in spring-water at a temperature of 40 degrees 

 (which is about the same as all good springs) in winter, will start out 

 a growth of vegetable fungi more than four times faster than if placed 

 in water at 33 degrees, which is the temperature of ice-water, and it is 

 nest to impossible to employ help enough to pick out the dead eggs 

 (when in spring-water) when you have over a million, as I had the last 

 two seasons. 



" Even in ice-water last winter, which preserved the eggs much longer 

 than in spring-water, it required from eight to ten persons to keep them 

 in fair condition, and then sometimes they were necessarily left too long- 

 in an unfavorable condition. 



" These facts are conclusive proof to my mind that the ova of white- 

 fish should be kept entirely away from the influence of spring- water, or 

 any water which will be liable to change during incubation, and all 



