REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 39 



Durino- the inontli,s of Januaiy and Fc])ruaiy 81H,250 ]>i-ook trout, 

 oous wore received from commercial tish-culturists in Massachusetts, 

 the product of which, as distributed, amounted to 749,350 fry. 



In February 50,000 rainbow-trout eggs were received from Manches- 

 ter, Iowa, resulting in 38,360 fry at the time of distribution. 



In March an auxiliary station at Swanton, Vt., was established 

 for the collection of pike-perch eggs. The superintendent assumed 

 general charge of operations at this point, and was in the field in 

 northern Vermont from March 27 to May 24. The run of pike perch 

 up the Missisquoi River began unusually early, and trial hauls of the 

 seine were iirst made on March 17. The first ripe eggs were taken 

 April 7. The spawning season lasted fifteen days, during which time 

 113,550,000 eggs were taken, including the eggs contributed free of 

 cost by the commercial fishermen on Lake Champlain. Most of the 

 brood fish from which eggs were secured were captured b}^ operating 

 a seine on the Missisquoi River, and the green eggs collected from the 

 fish thus taken turned out about 05 per cent of eyed eggs. The total 

 number of good eyed eggs, measured just before the hatching began, 

 was 48,000,000, of which 32,000,000 were turned over to the State of 

 Vermont, 11,925,000 were taken to the Cape Vincent Station, and the 

 remainder, a little over 4,000,000, were distributed in the waters of 

 Vermont and New Hampshire. 



In the course of this work it was found that the use of muck is not 

 essential for separating pike-perch eggs, the finely pulverized silt 

 forming the upper layer of the river bed answering the purpose fully 

 as well. It was also found that pike-perch eggs conveyed to the 

 hatchery in the milt in which they were fertilized and put into jars 

 immediately after being washed proved to be better than eggs treated 

 in any other way. 



Thirteen hundred steel head-trout fry were liberated in the St. Law- 

 rence River during the summer, the remarkable feature about this 

 event being the fact that the fry were the product of eggs that had 

 been taken from fish that had been hatched at the station four years 

 earlier and had spent their entire life inside the hatchery building. 

 The fry seemed strong and health3^ Several of the parents of these fish 

 were subsequently liberated in the St. Lawrence River, together with 

 some of the quinnat salmon, which had also matured in the hatchery 

 building. Those of both varieties remaining in the hatchery were 

 sent in September to the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. 



During the year some minor repairs were made. 



Steamer Fish Hawk (James A. Smith, in Charge). 



The vessel arrived ofi Gloucester City, N. J., in the Delaware River, 

 on April 29, and the hatching apparatus was immediately erected and 

 spawn-takers from the vessel's crew detailed to attend the fishing shores 

 at Howells Cove, Bennetts, and Cramer Hill. 



