PRACTICAL FISH-CULTURE. 583 



To all whom it may concern : 



Be it kuowu that I, Xelsou W. Clark, of Clarkstoii, in the county of 

 Oakland, and State of Michigan, have invented an improvement in fish- 

 hatching houses and boxes, of which the following is a specification : 



The nature of this invention relates to new and useful improvements 

 in the construction of hatching-boxes, and their arrangement in a hatch- 

 ing-house, and the arrangement of the other necessary parts to secure 

 economy and safety in the manipulation of the eggs, and to preserve 

 the fish after being hatched. The object of the invention is, first, to 

 avoid the use of gravel as a hatching-bed, so that all danger of dis- 

 turbing the eggs may be avoided, and which attends cleaning them from 

 the deposit of silt or earthy matter, which, more or less, obtains 

 when the gravel-beds are employed ; second, to enable the manipulators 

 to easily remove the dead eggs while immersed in water of the same 

 temperature as is used in the hatching-troughs; third, to preserve the 

 fish, when hatched, within the boxes wherein they were hatched, and 

 whence they may be easily and safely removed, when desired; and, 

 fourth, to not only save labor, but to insure the hatching of more eggs 

 than in the hatching-troughs usually emploj^ed. 



Fig. 1 is a plan view of a section of a hatching-house built upon my 

 improved plan. Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line x x in Fig. J. 

 Fig. 3 is a plan view of the cross-bar which retains the hatching-box in 

 place in the troughs, and at the same time confines the perforated top of 

 the hatching-boxes. Fig. 4 is a sectional perspective of one of the 

 hatching-boxes with the perforated top or cover in place. Fig. 5 is a 

 perspective of one of the water-ways or channels which leads from one 

 compartment of the troughs to another. Fig. 6 is a perspective of an 

 inverted hatching-box. 



Like letters refer to like parts in each figure. 



In the accompanying drawings, A represents the walls of a hatching- 

 house, provided at one end with an elevated water-tank, B, from which 

 the water flows through pipes or faucets a a', as desired. are the va- 

 rious compartments of the hatching-troughs, made water-tight, and the 

 walls and divisions somewhat higher than the hatching-boxes D, and so 

 provided with waste-water ways or channels b that the water in the 

 troughs shall never flow over the tops of the boxes. These latter are 

 constructed somewhat smaller than the compartments in the troughs 

 wherein they are placed, and they are provided with feet c to raise them 

 suflBciently from the floor of the troughs to allow a free passage of water 

 under them, and to raise them above any sediment that may be 

 deposited on said floor. The bottoms of these boxes are covered with a 

 fine wire-gauze, sufficiently fine that the fish, when hatched, cannot pass 

 through the meshes. Small risers d are secured to the ends of the boxes 

 just above the bottom, and upon these bottoms are placed a portion of 

 the eggs to be hatched. A series of sieves, E, the meshes of which are 

 fine enough to retain the eggs placed therein, and large enough to per- 



