6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



hatcbiug-box holding the trays is made of ^-inch ends and 1-inch bot- 

 tom. The ends are 5 inches high. The water is made to flow in umler 

 the upper end and out over the lower end, as the arrows indicate. By 

 this means all the eggs are thoroughly covered by constantly-changing 

 water, and less sediment is deposited on the eggs. The end of each box 

 near the head of the trough is made higher than the lower end, to cause 

 the water to flow in the manner indicated. The trough is 16 feet long, 

 8 inches deep, and 18 inches wide. The longitudinal section is made on 

 a scale of one-half inch to the foot. 



Seth Green, the great fish-culturist, used a trough somewhat similar, 

 but he led the water in and out of each box by means of a pipe, which 

 caused a steady flow only near the mouth of the pipe. In Mr. William- 

 son's box, the flow is equal on all parts, and the eggs have plenty of fresh 

 water. The upward current runs up through all the eggs, and the eggs 

 being on top the sediment does not collect on them. There being so 

 much more surface to place eggs in the same relative space, considerable 

 room is saved in the hatcbing-house. 



The California Acclimatizing Society are beginning to use these boxes 

 at their hatching-house at Poiut Pedro, in San Mateo County. The 

 device is not patented. 



3. — THE BROOK-SHANTY. 



An apparatus for fish-hatching, called the Brook-Shanty, was invented 

 and patented by W. H. Furman, of Maspeth, Queens County, Xew York, 

 in 1868. 



This consists of a building, either inclosing a section of a stream with 

 a dam shutting off the water from above, except as it passes through an 

 inlet into the building, or without relation to a brook, admitting water 

 from springs into the building. Within the building, raised above the 

 inlet, a spawning "chamber" containing troughs is arranged. The 

 troughs are covered with gravel to considerable depth. In front of the 

 spawning-chamber is another dam or bulk-head that raises the water 

 several inches above the gravel before it flows over: the water falls from 

 the spawning-chamber into an apartment below called a receiver, the 

 water being kept at a proper level by still another and a movable bulk- 

 head below. Above the latter bulk-head a screen is placed to prevent 

 the escape of young fishes down the stream. In the spawning season 

 the lower bulk-head and screen are to be removed, permitting ripe fish 

 to ascend until they find the gravel-beds in the spawning-chamber, where 

 they are allowed to deposit their ova undisturbed, and are then permit- 

 ted to drop down the stream. The troughs are provided with perfo- 

 rated lids to keep the light from the eggs. 



The flow of water is from an inlet below the spawning-beds, the water 

 passing up through the gravel-bed so as to be filtered and cleansed be- 

 fore it comes in contact with the eggs. It falls from the spawning- 

 chamber into the receiver, where the young fishes are kept until strong 



